Sen. Joe Gruters introduced a bill that could help law enforcement put more hit-and-run drivers behind bars.
It’s called the Lilly Glaubach Act.
This comes about a year after Lilly, a 13-year-old from Tampa, was killed in a hit-and-run crash while riding her bike home from school.
If the bill is passed, customers will be required to provide auto shops with a crash report. The alternative option requires the shop to file a collision repair form that would go directly to law enforcement.
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The form would include information on the customer, vehicle, and a description of the damage.
Barbara Carpenter supports this bill because she was hit by a car in Apopka last year and left for dead. The car hit her while she was on her morning walk.
She didn’t think this would ever happen to her — until it did.
“The EMT told me that I was found lying unconscious over here in the road right by this stop sign,” Carpenter said.
She still can’t believe the suspect driver didn’t stop to help her.
“I can’t hit a squirrel and not stop, so I don’t know how you hit a human and leave them on the side of the road,” she told News 6.
More than a year later, no one has been arrested for the crime. That’s why she supports this newly introduced bill.
“If this person took their vehicle in to get repaired, we wouldn’t know where we wouldn’t know anything about it, we have no way to trace it and track it,” Carpenter said.
She thinks Sen. Gruters’ bill could change that.
Aaron Nelson with Aaron’s Auto Care, on the other hand, worries about the effect it could have on auto shops.
“It would definitely slow it down as far as turnaround time on automobiles and stuff like that there, and it would add to time that it would take in order to complete an automobile,” Nelson said.
Carpenter thinks the extra steps at the car shop would be worth it.
“I hope it never happens to anyone, any of this, but if there was something in place to offer some type of remedy to these families, I wish I had it, it would’ve made a difference,” Carpenter said.
According to Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, there have been more than 80,000 hit-and-run crashes in the state this year.
Sen. Gruters’ bill was filed last week. Next, it will be sent to a committee.
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