South Florida Personal Injury Lawyers Blog
When a driver hits a cyclist and speeds off, the victim’s family can still recover money, often through the cyclist’s own auto insurance and through a wrongful death claim. In late June 2026, a 68-year-old cyclist riding in a marked bike lane on the Southeast 17th Street Causeway in Fort Lauderdale was killed when a driver struck her and left the scene. Cases like this raise a hard question for families across South Florida: what happens to the claim when the person who caused the crash runs.
The attorneys at Friedman Rodman Frank & Estrada handle fatal crash and wrongful death cases for families in Miami-Dade, Broward, and the surrounding counties, and a driver fleeing does not close off the family’s options.
Your Own Insurance Can Pay When the At-Fault Driver Is Long Gone
A hit-and-run does not leave the family with nothing, even if police never identify the driver. Florida treats an unidentified hit-and-run driver the same as an uninsured driver, which means the cyclist’s own uninsured motorist (UM) coverage can step in and pay. Uninsured motorist coverage is first-party insurance you buy from your own auto insurer that pays for your injuries, or your family’s losses in a death case, when the at-fault driver has no insurance or cannot be found.
Under Florida Statute § 627.727, UM coverage follows the named insured and resident family members even when they are hit while walking or riding a bicycle, not only while driving. A cyclist does not need to have been in a car to use this coverage. Many policies require physical contact between the vehicle and the victim in a hit-and-run, and a driver who strikes a cyclist has already made that contact.
The person who fled also faces criminal charges that run alongside the civil claim. Leaving the scene of a crash that causes death is a first-degree felony under Florida Statute § 316.027, and it carries a four-year mandatory minimum prison sentence. That criminal case is separate from any money the family recovers.
How a Florida Wrongful Death Claim Works
A wrongful death claim is a civil case that lets a person’s surviving family recover for the losses caused by a death that resulted from someone else’s negligence or wrongful act. Florida’s Wrongful Death Act, found at Florida Statutes §§ 768.16 through 768.26, controls who can file and what the family can recover.
The claim is filed by the personal representative of the estate, not by relatives individually, under Florida Statute § 768.20. That representative brings one case for the estate and for the surviving family members the law calls “survivors,” a group defined in § 768.21 that generally includes a spouse, children, and parents. Depending on the survivor, the recovery can include:
- Lost support and services the person provided to the family
- A spouse’s loss of companionship and mental pain and suffering
- A child’s lost parental companionship and guidance
- Medical and funeral expenses tied to the death
- The estate’s lost earnings and net accumulations
The deadline is short. A wrongful death claim in Florida generally must be filed within two years of the date of death under Florida Statute § 95.11(5)(e). Evidence tends to disappear faster than that, so a family rarely has as much time as two years makes it sound.
What Families Should Do Early
The days right after a fatal hit-and-run decide how strong the case will be later. A lawyer can pull and preserve surveillance and traffic-camera footage before it is recorded over, track down the cyclist’s UM coverage and any household policies that might apply, open the estate so a claim can be filed, and deal with the insurer so the family does not have to. This matters because footage from nearby businesses is often gone within days, and if police later identify the driver, that driver’s own insurance may add a second source of recovery.
Friedman Rodman Frank & Estrada has represented injured cyclists in bicycle accident cases and grieving families across South Florida since 1976. If your family lost someone in a hit-and-run crash in Miami-Dade or Broward County, call Friedman Rodman Frank & Estrada at (305) 448-8585 or contact us online. The consultation is free, and you pay nothing unless the firm recovers compensation for you.