Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Hit-run victim wanted photo
Vacationer was killed on ‘beautiful day,’ wife says
On the last evening of a weeklong family vacation, Miguel Soler stopped the car on Las Olas Boulevard so his wife could snap his picture posing by the “Welcome to Fort Lauderdale Beach” sign.
It was intended to be a photo the New Jersey couple would long remember.
Seconds after Vivian Soler took that cellphone picture at 6:34 p.m. Saturday, her 58-year-old husband was struck by a hit-and run-driver as he opened the door to get back into the couple’s rental car.
Soler was taken to Broward Health Medical Center, where he died, according to Fort Lauderdale police.
“I cannot even believe this happened,”
said Vivian Soler, 47. “The day was beautiful. He was a healthy, strong man. Everything was fine.”
In the car with the Solers was their 13-year-old son, also named Miguel. “He is in shock,” Vivian Soler said Monday.
Investigators said Soler was standing next to the car, which was stopped in the westbound lanes in front of 2609 E. Las Olas Blvd.
He was hit by a vehicle traveling west on East Las Olas Boulevard.
The driver of the vehicle left the scene, continuing west and failing to stop or aid the injured pedestrian, according to police.
The suspected hit-run vehicle, an SUV, was found shortly after the crash in the 300 block of Tarpon Drive, about 10 blocks west of the crash site, police said.
“He just crossed the street, I took a picture from inside the car and I was waiting for him to get in,” Soler said. “I didn’t see him [get hit], I just heard the bump.”
Vivian Soler said she, her husband and their son were headed to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, 600 E Las Olas Blvd., when he decided to stop for a couple of photos.
“He was driving, he saw the boats and said, ‘I would like to have a picture with boats in the back,’ ” she said.
The picture of her husband shows him with his arm casually resting on the “Welcome” sign, with water and yachts in the background.
Before she took the final picture of her husband, Miguel Soler snapped a picture of her standing in front of a flowering shrub that reminded them of flowers in their native Cuba, she said
Vivian Soler said her husband was due to start a new job Monday with UPS, working out of the Newark Liberty International Airport, near their home in Carteret.
While funeral arrangements are being made, Vivian Soler said she and her son are staying with relatives in Miami.
Fort Lauderdale police ask anyone with information to contact Traffic Homicide Investigator Russell Brown at 954-828-5754, or Broward Crime Stoppers at 954-493-TIPS (8477).