10-Year-Old Girl Dies, Brother Critically Injured in E-Bike Hit-and-Run in Northwest Miami

Gregg Hollander | September 10, 2026 | Accident News

A 10-year-old girl died and her older brother remains critically injured after they were struck by a car while riding an e-bike in northwest Miami-Dade Wednesday night. The driver left the scene. 

I don’t have much to say about the crash itself, since the driver hasn’t been identified yet and the investigation is still open. What I want to talk about instead is something specific to what families face in situations like this, because Florida law actually treats the loss of a child differently than it treats most other losses, and it’s worth understanding why.

Florida Law Gives Parents of a Minor Child Something It Doesn’t Give Other Families

Most people don’t know this distinction exists. When an adult dies because of someone else’s negligence, that person’s parents can only recover for their own grief and mental anguish if there’s no surviving spouse or children of the deceased to make that claim instead. When a minor child dies, Florida law doesn’t impose that condition at all. Both parents can recover for their own mental pain and suffering, from the moment of injury forward, regardless of who else survives. It’s one of the few places where the law draws a clear, deliberate line around the specific grief of losing a child, rather than treating it the same as any other loss in a family.

The Driver Not Being Identified Yet Doesn’t Close Any Doors

I’ll briefly say what I’ve said in other cases like this, because it’s true here too. A driver who hasn’t been found yet doesn’t mean there’s no path forward. Florida law gives families in exactly this position a way to pursue their own uninsured motorist coverage as a stand-in for a driver who can’t yet be identified, and that path doesn’t depend on an arrest ever happening.