A serious injury crash near 36th Avenue and 78th Street in Hillsborough County sent Sheriff Chad Chronister, deputies and fire rescue crews to the scene, and one of the drivers involved didn’t stick around to answer questions. Instead, that driver fled on foot, triggering an active K-9 search as investigators worked to piece together what happened.
Sheriff, Deputies and Fire Rescue Converge on the Scene
According to the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office
, Chronister was on scene alongside deputies and Hillsborough County Fire Rescue following the crash, which the agency described as causing serious injuries. The sheriff's office said one of the drivers fled the scene and that its K-9 Unit was actively tracking that person. HCSO asked the public to avoid the area while emergency crews worked.
The agency's social media post did not identify the driver who ran, nor did it detail the condition of anyone injured in the crash or explain what led up to it. Those specifics remain unknown, and the sheriff's office has not said how long the area will need to stay clear while crews respond.
Florida law requires drivers involved in injury crashes to stop, remain at the scene and fulfill duties that include providing information and aid. If a crash causes what the statute defines as “serious bodily injury”—a condition posing a substantial risk of death, serious disfigurement or prolonged impairment—willfully leaving is a second-degree felony. The sheriff’s office has described the injuries in this crash as serious, but has not released details showing whether they meet that legal definition. Florida’s law on leaving an injury crash sets out those duties and penalties.
A Familiar Scenario for Hillsborough Deputies
Fleeing drivers are not new territory for Hillsborough County law enforcement. In a separate case from November 2023, deputies arrested 26-year-old Angelo Juan Pedrosa after he fled a traffic stop and crashed his black pickup truck on Rideout Road. The sheriff's office said at the time that its Aviation Unit located a man who matched the driver's description walking rapidly on 78th Street southbound, according to a press release from teamhcso.com.
Pedrosa ultimately faced charges of felony fleeing to elude, leaving the scene of a crash with property damage, and driving with a cancelled, suspended or revoked license, per the same release. Chronister had a blunt message for drivers tempted to run in that case: “Our deputies will find you, and it will go worse for you when charged for your crimes. Do the right thing. Don't run.”
The case also sits within a substantial statewide hit-and-run problem: Florida recorded 97,902 hit-and-run crashes in 2024, resulting in 246 deaths, according to the state’s preliminary crash figures. Those totals cover crashes statewide and do not indicate how common serious-injury cases are in Hillsborough County, but they show the broader scale of crashes in which a driver leaves. Florida’s 2024 crash summary lists the hit-and-run figures alongside the state’s overall crash and fatality totals.
Whether that same resolve plays out in Saturday's incident near 36th Avenue and 78th Street is not yet clear. No arrest, identification or outcome has been announced in connection with the current search, and the cause of the crash itself has not been disclosed.
