A 67-year-old Pinellas Park man has died after being struck by a car while trying to cross 66th Street North on Thursday morning, and Florida troopers say the driver will not face criminal charges. The crash happened around 7:45 a.m. as a 48-year-old Palm Harbor man was driving a Kia Soul northbound near 56th Avenue North, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.
Troopers say the pedestrian entered the path of the Kia Soul as he attempted to cross the roadway, and the vehicle struck him. He was taken to an area hospital with serious injuries and later died there, according to WTSP-TV. Florida Highway Patrol confirmed Thursday that the Palm Harbor driver was not facing any criminal charges in connection with the fatal crash, though the investigation remains ongoing, per iontb.com.
A Crash Site With A Troubled History
Though the victim lived in Pinellas Park, the crash itself happened in West Lealman, an unincorporated community where 66th Street North serves as a major arterial corridor cutting through central Pinellas County. It is not the first fatal pedestrian crash at this exact spot. On March 29, 2023, a 79-year-old St. Petersburg man was struck and killed by a southbound van at the same location on 66th Street North, just north of 56th Avenue North, after stepping into the vehicle's path — a case where state troopers also said the pedestrian had walked into traffic outside a crosswalk, the station's report notes.
Just eight months before Thursday's crash, a 28-year-old woman was struck and killed on the same 66th Street North corridor, in the 11700 block in Pinellas Park, after stepping into travel lanes outside a marked crosswalk. Police noted at the time that speed and impairment were not factors in that December crash, according to the same account.
Florida's Legal Tightrope Between Drivers And Pedestrians
Florida law places real obligations on both sides of these encounters. Under Florida Statute § 316.130, pedestrians crossing a roadway anywhere other than a marked crosswalk or an unmarked crosswalk at an intersection are legally required to yield the right-of-way to oncoming vehicles, as outlined by Emmanuel Sheppard & Condon. But the same statute cuts the other way for drivers: Florida Statute § 316.130(15) requires every driver to exercise due care to avoid colliding with pedestrians and to sound a horn when necessary, according to Schwed, Adams & McGinley. That dual duty is central to how investigators evaluate crashes like Thursday's, where a pedestrian outside a crosswalk still leaves a driver bound by law to try to avoid the collision.
The Florida Department of Transportation had previously completed safety enhancements along State Road 693, the official designation for 66th Street North, stretching from 30th Avenue North to 58th Avenue North — a project area that encompasses the 56th Avenue intersection where Thursday's crash occurred, per FDOT Tampa Bay.
Tampa Bay's Pedestrian Safety Crisis
The crash adds to a grim regional pattern. Smart Growth America's 2026 Dangerous by Design report ranked the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metro area 8th nationwide for pedestrian danger, recording 618 pedestrian deaths between 2020 and 2024 — up from 557 in the previous five-year period, according to ThatCarHitMe.com. In 2025 alone, Pinellas County recorded 481 pedestrian collisions resulting in 29 pedestrian fatalities, part of 12,333 total vehicle crashes and 65 traffic deaths countywide, per data cited by Jack Bernstein Injury Attorneys.
Regional planning agency Forward Pinellas has found that roughly 40 percent of all fatal and severe-injury traffic crashes in the county occur on just 2.7 percent of the roadway network, a stretch of high-speed corridors the agency designates as the High-Injury Network. Thursday's crash marks at least the third fatal or near-fatal pedestrian incident on the 66th Street North corridor documented in recent years, underscoring why Pinellas County planners have flagged the road as a priority for safety intervention.
Hoodline has previously covered similar tragedies across Pinellas County, including a Lexus crosswalk death in Pinellas Park in March and a fatal crash on 49th Street in St. Petersburg in May. The Florida Highway Patrol's investigation into Thursday's crash on 66th Street North remains open.
