The financial and emotional impact of hit-and-runs

Florida has averaged over 100,000 hit-and-runs for the last five years, with 250 of those being deadly each year.

Being in a crash like this sticks with a person for life. It’s a lot to deal with emotionally and, of course, financially.

WINK News met up with a man named Dakota Gough-Lindsey. He was t-boned by a car Sunday night.

He’s physically OK, but emotionally, he was shaken up, calling the other driver selfish for taking off and never checking to see if he was OK.

The hit-and-run Sunday left his Nissan 350-Z totaled.

“I had a certain amount of money I was putting towards a house, and a large chunk of that was ripped away from me, so I felt like not only did I lose a vehicle, [but] I also lost a potential home.

Gough-Lindsey’s hit-and-run isn’t out of the ordinary, unfortunately.

WINK has covered a number of hit-and-run crashes where lives were taken or people were left for dead.

That includes 15-year-old Eduardo Dayan Lopez. A driver hit and killed him before taking off.

Another driver hit 23-year-old Ben Hugoboom in Ave Maria, leaving him in critical condition.

John Gardner has worked in the insurance industry for 30 years. He’s the president and owner of Lee County Insurance Agency. He said that, unfortunately, things will likely get worse.

“I’m not saying we’ll have more accidents. I’m saying more of the accidents that occur will involve uninsured people because as the price of insurance goes up, there’s more and more people that simply can’t afford it, so, that’s where the uninsured part comes in,” Gardner said.

Gardner said that uninsured motorists are quickly becoming one of the most utilized portions of insurance policies in part because of things like hit-and-runs, and he said we’re all paying for it, explaining that we’re all sharing in the cost of claims when we pay our premiums.

He said the best way to protect ourselves is by not cutting back on insurance coverage and purchasing a dashcam.