A 19-year-old University of Florida freshman was struck and killed late Saturday night while crossing West University Avenue, and although a different, intoxicated driver was arrested after driving through the crash scene, no arrest had been made of the driver who struck her. Hazel Krauss, a Chicago native studying in the Warrington College of Business, died at UF Health Shands Hospital after the collision near campus.
According to gainesville.com, the crash happened at about 11:33 p.m. in the 2300 block of West University Avenue, when an eastbound driver swerved to avoid another vehicle and struck both Krauss and that second car. The Miami Herald reports that authorities believe Krauss was standing on the double yellow lines between two westbound lanes and one eastbound lane when she was struck, according to Gainesville Police Department public information officer Art Forgey.
A nurse who happened to be on the scene tended to Krauss until emergency medical crews arrived, according to The Independent Florida Alligator. Krauss was rushed to UF Health Shands Hospital, where she later died from her injuries.
University Confirms Krauss Was a Freshman
University of Florida Director of Public Affairs Cynthia Roldan confirmed that Krauss was a freshman at UF, per the Miami Herald's reporting. WCJB separately reports that UF officials confirmed Krauss was a freshman in the Warrington College of Business and that she was originally from Chicago, according to wcjb.com.
The crash investigation remains open. Forgey told the Alligator that no arrests have been made in the case of the driver who struck Krauss, and the Miami Herald reports that the driver who hit her was not found to be intoxicated.
Second Driver Arrested Near the Crash Scene
While investigators worked the scene, a separate driver was taken into custody nearby. Jack Bour was charged with driving under the influence after he drove around a police vehicle that was blocking traffic during the investigation, the Alligator reports. The Miami Herald's account similarly describes a different, intoxicated driver who ignored a roadblock and drove through the crash scene before being arrested, though it does not name that driver.
A Stretch of Road Targeted by Safety Efforts
West University Avenue sits within an area the City of Gainesville has targeted for years through its Vision Zero Action Strategy, adopted in April 2021 with the goal of eliminating traffic deaths by 2040, according to WUFT. The initiative has primarily focused on streets near the UF campus and parts of downtown, including University Avenue and 13th Street, which officials said saw more concentrated accidents than other roads in the city. That corridor alone had received more than $11 million in pedestrian-safety projects funded by UF, the Florida Department of Transportation and the City of Gainesville, per the same report.
Even so, the station's report found that only 30 of 156 pedestrian-crash reports filed by Gainesville police between January 2021 and March 2022 fell within the Vision Zero target zone, with a local transportation advocate noting that roads like Waldo Road have historically seen more fatalities than University Avenue itself. Gainesville had ranked ninth among 36 Florida cities with populations of at least 75,000 for pedestrian-related serious injuries and fatalities between 2016 and 2020, per a Florida Department of Transportation study cited in the WUFT report.
Statewide, pedestrian deaths have trended downward in recent years. Florida recorded 366 projected pedestrian fatalities in the first half of 2024, an 8.5 percent drop from the same period a year earlier, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association. Still, Florida was among three states — alongside California and Texas — that together accounted for 35 percent of all U.S. pedestrian deaths in the first half of 2024 while representing just 28 percent of the national population.
