The Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) responded to a crash that resulted in the death of a pedestrian.
The crash occurred on Thursday, April 23, 2020 at approximately 10:20 p.m. on Belleair Road in unincorporated Pinellas County.
According to FHP, a 22 year-old male was operating his vehicle westbound on Belleair Road east of South Haven Drive. Troopers say that the driver was unable to see the pedestrian sitting in the roadway and unsuccessfully attempted to avoid the pedestrian.
The pedestrian was flown to a local trauma center where he died from his injuries Saturday afternoon.
The FHP will no longer identify parties involved in crashes. In a notice they posted, “..our charge to protect the privacy of victims of crimes and their families. The Constitution of the State of Florida protects the victims of crimes from the release of information that could be used to locate or harass the victim of a crime.”
This is result of the passage of Amendment 6 (Marsy’s Law for Florida), which passed in November 2018 with about 62 percent of the vote. Many law enforcement agencies that been unilaterally withholding names of crime victims based on lack of clarity in the amendment. This clarity must now come from the Florida legislature.