Authorities are looking for the vehicle that struck a 23-year-old Virginia man as he lay on the pavement near 45th Street following an earlier wreck.
WEST PALM BEACH — A 23-year-old Northern Virginia man died early Tuesday in a hit-and-run crash on Interstate 95 that began when he tried to push his disabled vehicle off the roadway, the Florida Highway Patrol said.
Investigators are looking for a vehicle that struck the man as he lay on the pavement in the northbound lanes near 45th Street. They offered no description of it except to say it would have major damage to the right headlight assembly.The third vehicle came upon the scene seconds after the crash and continued northbound on I-95 after hitting the man, who lived in Herndon, Virginia.
FHP did not identify either the victim or the driver of the SUV. It stopped releasing the names of crash victims last spring, saying it did so to comply with a 2018 amendment to the state constitution giving crime victims and their families the right to withhold their names from public reports.
The SUV driver, a 23-year-old man from Loxahatchee, was not injured in the crash, FHP said. He remained at the scene after the crash.
The wreck blocked all northbound lanes to early morning traffic. The lanes reopened shortly after 7 a.m., FHP said.
It’s the second recent fatal crash on northbound I-95 near 45th Street this month, following one March 2 in which a 17-year-old died.
The man’s sedan broke down in the center lane shortly before 2 a.m., FHP said. He tried to push it onto I-95’s shoulder, guiding it from the driver’s side door, when a northbound SUV failed to see him and struck the sedan, throwing the 23-year-old to the pavement.