A 53-year-old Palmetto woman was struck and killed crossing U.S. Highway 41 late Friday night, and the driver who hit her kept going, according to the Florida Highway Patrol. The woman was pronounced dead at the scene near Bayshore Road, and troopers are now hunting for whoever was behind the wheel.
FHP says the vehicle was traveling southbound in the inside lane of U.S. 41 when it struck the woman as she crossed the roadway, according to 10 Tampa Bay. The outlet reports the crash happened around 11:12 p.m. near U.S. Highway 41 and Bayshore Road in Palmetto, though My Suncoast places the time at around 11:15 p.m. Friday. My Suncoast also reports that the driver then drove away from the accident, leaving the woman where she was struck.
Investigators Zero In On a Possible Kia
Troopers believe the vehicle involved may be a white 2021 to 2023 Kia K5 with damage to the front-left side, per the earlier report from 10 Tampa Bay. FHP is asking anyone with information to come forward by dialing *FHP (*347) or contacting Crime Stoppers of Manatee County, the station notes. No arrest has been announced in connection with the crash.
The search echoes a case from 2020, when a hit-and-run driver killed a 34-year-old woman trying to cross U.S. 41 in Bradenton, about 1,000 feet south of Bayshore Gardens Parkway, according to the Bradenton Herald. In that case, a tip led troopers to an unoccupied Ford F-250 matching the suspected vehicle's description, and the truck was impounded for forensic testing while the search for the driver continued, the paper reported.
A Pattern of Deadly Pedestrian Crashes
Hit-and-run crashes killed 52 pedestrians across Sarasota and Manatee counties in 2023 and 2024, according to state figures cited by My Suncoast in an earlier report. The same report found that in Sarasota County in 2024 alone, more than 1,500 drivers fled the scene after striking another car, a bicyclist, or a pedestrian.
The Sarasota/Manatee Metropolitan Planning Organization's safety assessment, based on data from 2017 through 2022, found that pedestrian crashes are the region's deadliest crash type, with nearly one-quarter of all fatal crashes involving a pedestrian, according to the Sarasota/Manatee MPO. The assessment estimates that an average of 25 to 26 pedestrians die in roadway crashes in the region each year, and it identifies 20 High Injury Network roadway segments that account for nearly 45 percent of fatal and serious-injury crashes despite making up less than 3 percent of non-interstate roadway mileage.
A more recent Manatee County case shows how quickly these investigations can move when tips come in. In September 2025, a northbound 2004 Chevrolet Colorado struck and killed a 46-year-old Bradenton man walking along 15th Street East, according to ION Tampa Bay. Troopers identified the driver as 38-year-old Arnulfo Carranza Dominguez and booked him into the Manatee County Jail on multiple charges, including leaving the scene of a crash involving death and DUI, the outlet reported.
No such arrest has been made in Friday's crash, and the driver's identity remains unknown. FHP's appeal for tips is the only avenue investigators have made public so far as they work to find the car and the person who left a Palmetto woman dying on U.S. 41.
