VIDEO: Car flips, driver critically injured in Florida hit-and-run crash
MANATEE COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) – Authorities are looking for the driver of a van who hit a car, causing it to flip through a Manatee County parking lot, critically injuring the other driver.
Dramatic video shows the moment when the car went flying. In the video, you can see the serious nature of the crash.
Nadine Ramaut was there when it happened.
“Terrible, terrible. I’ve never seen anything like that in my life and I’ve been around a while,” she said.
It happened around 7:45 Thursday morning. Surveillance video from the Lantern Inn and Suites off U.S. 41 in Manatee County recorded the driver of the van attempting to make a left turn. The van went straight into the path of 19-year-old Jackson Kelley, who was in the black Audi.
The cars collided and Kelley’s car flipped through the parking lot. It finally came to rest after knocking out a portion of the pool fence.
“It really was scary. It really was. I mean you wouldn’t believe this place. Everyone heard the crash and they all came from downstairs and they came from the second floor to see what was going on,” Ramaut told News 8’s sister WFLA.
If you look closely in the video, one woman was standing near where the crash happened and ran to get out of the way.
A Lantern Inn employee says drivers speed on U.S. 41 all the time and this isn’t the first crash she’s seen in this area.
“I mean as soon as the light turns green, people they just go and they don’t think and that car just didn’t stop and he hit the black car and went tumbling. It was horrible. I was scared,” said Brenda Acosta. “I was at school and then they sent it to me and I was like wow that could have been someone there that got hurt.”
The driver of the van is on the run. Kelley is still in the hospital. At last check, he remained in critical condition.
A GoFundMe campaign has been set up. On the page, it says Kelley is in the ICU after undergoing surgery. His family, however, declined to release any information about his condition.