Port St. Lucie Hit-and-Run on Northwest California Boulevard Leaves Man Critically Injured, Second Vehicle Still Sought

Gregg Hollander | October 12, 2026 | Accident News

Shortly before 1 a.m. on October 9th, a man was struck on Northwest California Boulevard in Port St. Lucie and left lying unconscious in the road with severe head injuries. Passing drivers found him, and he was still in critical condition as of October 23rd. Police now believe he may have been hit by two separate vehicles, one heading north and one heading south. They’ve arrested the driver of one, a man who was working as a newspaper delivery driver and was on his way to pick up papers at the time, and as of the latest reports they’re still looking for the other. The arrested driver is charged with leaving the scene of a crash involving serious bodily injury, and I’ll leave that to the criminal side. 

What I want to talk about is what happens to a claim when one of two drivers has not been found, and whether a driver who was headed to work brings anyone else into the picture. Unlike other hit-and-run cases, this has some unique factors.

When One of Two Drivers Is Still Missing

Florida divides fault among everyone responsible, and each person only pays their own share. The same statute also lets a defendant point at someone who isn’t in the case at all. If a defendant can prove another person was partly at fault, a jury can assign that person a percentage of the blame, and the law specifically allows that to be an unnamed nonparty. In a case like this, that means the driver who was arrested could argue the second vehicle caused part of the harm, and any share a jury assigns to a driver nobody has found is a share that can’t be collected from the driver who was caught.

That’s why other coverage matters so much here. Uninsured motorist coverage can respond when a driver can’t be identified, and the same statute covers underinsured situations, where the identified driver’s insurance is less than the total damages. Both only help if the injured person’s own policy includes that coverage, since Florida lets a policyholder reject it in writing, and there are proof requirements when the other driver can’t be identified. This is also a good reason the search for the second vehicle matters beyond the criminal case. A driver who is found changes who can be held responsible and what insurance is available.

A Driver on the Way to Work Can Bring an Employer Into the Picture

According to police, the arrested driver was working as a newspaper delivery driver and was heading to pick up papers when this happened. In Florida, an employer can be responsible for an employee’s negligence while on the job, even if the employer did nothing wrong itself. But a plain commute to work generally doesn’t count as being on the job, which is known as the going-and-coming rule. A trip to pick up the day’s papers to deliver may be treated differently than a drive from home to a workplace, but it likely depends on if the driver was clocked in or just commuting.

However, a delivery driver can also be classified as an independent contractor rather than an employee, and if that’s the case here, the situation changes. Whether anyone besides the driver can be held responsible also affects which insurance policies might apply, since driving for work can fall under a different policy than driving for personal reasons. None of that can be answered from what’s been released so far, so a thorough investigation will be important.