A child was struck by a car Friday afternoon in a shopping center parking lot in the 1000 block of South Congress Avenue in Delray Beach, according to police. The child was taken to a hospital, and no information about their condition has been released.
Delray Beach Police said the incident was reported around 4:46 p.m. Friday, as reported by WPTV. Police are investigating the incident, and the outlet described the case as a developing story, with no further details released about how the crash unfolded or what led up to it.
Where the Crash Happened
The parking lot sits within Sherwood Park Plaza, a commercial retail center at 1005 S. Congress Ave near Lowson Boulevard that includes street-level parking and tenants such as MIA Supermarket and NAPA Auto Parts, according to property listing site LoopNet. The stretch of South Congress Avenue is a busy commercial corridor in Delray Beach lined with retail centers and parking areas.
The child was transported to a hospital, though it's unclear which one. Delray Medical Center, located on Linton Boulevard in Delray Beach, is a state-designated Level I Trauma Center and Level II Pediatric Trauma Center that serves southern Palm Beach County alongside St. Mary's Medical Center in West Palm Beach as part of the county's Trauma Hawk aeromedical network, per Palm Beach Health Network.
A Pattern of Parking Lot Crashes
This is not the first pedestrian-involved crash in a Delray Beach parking lot this year. In March, Hoodline reported that a driver fled after striking a pedestrian in a community parking lot at Kings Point before facing felony hit-and-run charges under Florida Statute § 316.061.
Parking lots and driveways present a distinct hazard nationally. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration research indicates that non-roadway locations, including commercial parking lots and residential driveways, account for 15% to 25% of all reported pedestrian-vehicle collisions across the country. Young children face particular risk in these settings; NHTSA data shows that 17% of all children aged 14 and younger killed in U.S. traffic crashes in 2024 were pedestrians, with kids under age 5 especially vulnerable in parking lots and driveways because they are shorter and harder for drivers to spot in blind zones.
What Florida Law Requires of Drivers
Under Florida Statute § 316.125, drivers emerging from or entering an alley, building, private road, or driveway are legally required to stop before driving onto sidewalk areas and must yield the right-of-way to approaching pedestrians and vehicles, according to Online Sunshine, the state's official legislative resource. That duty applies in commercial parking plazas just as it does on public roadways, and violations resulting in injury can carry serious civil and criminal consequences.
Palm Beach County has seen pedestrian crashes climb in recent years. Motorists in the county struck 807 pedestrians in 2024, resulting in 61 deaths, a 13% increase from the 54 pedestrian fatalities recorded in 2023, per the Palm Beach Post. Preliminary state data also recorded 26,550 total motor vehicle collisions and 16,565 injuries countywide in 2024, averaging nearly 70 crashes a day, according to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.
Statewide, pedestrian crashes remain disproportionately deadly. Florida logged 10,753 pedestrian crashes resulting in 622 fatalities in 2025; while those crashes made up less than 3% of all traffic incidents statewide, they accounted for over 20% of all traffic deaths, USA Today reports. Federal FARS data also ranks Florida fourth nationwide for its pedestrian fatality rate, at 3.41 deaths per 100,000 residents compared to the national average of 2.18.
Delray Beach Police have not released additional details about how Friday's crash occurred, including whether speed or distraction played a role, or the current condition of the child. Hoodline will update this story as more information becomes available.
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