Florida is facing a persistent road safety crisis, with new data revealing the state has the seventh-highest fatal hit-and-run rate in the United States. Between 2020 and 2024, Florida averaged 257 hit-and-run deaths per year, totaling 1,285 lives lost over the five-year period.
According to an analysis of National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) data by Wilk Law, Florida’s fatal hit-and-run rate stands at 1.15 per 100,000 residents. This figure is 67% higher than the national average of 0.69.
When compared to Maine, which has the lowest rate in the country at 0.06, Florida’s rate is nearly 20 times higher.
The numbers place Florida third in the South for these specific types of fatalities, trailing only Louisiana and Tennessee. While the state saw a peak of 295 deaths in 2021, the annual count has remained high, with 228 deaths recorded in 2024.
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“These numbers reflect real people who were failed twice: first by a driver who chose to flee, and then by a system that too often leaves their families without accountability or support,” said Tyler Wilk, Founding Attorney at Wilk Law. “The persistence of this trend across five consecutive years signals that enforcement and infrastructure approaches in the hardest-hit states need serious re-evaluation.”
The study highlights a distinct regional trend, with nine of the ten deadliest states located in the South or West. Florida’s rate of 1.15 per 100,000 residents is significantly higher than the Southern regional average of 0.90. In contrast, West Virginia, the safest Southern state, maintains a rate of 0.39.
The findings were calculated by averaging annual state-level fatality counts from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System and normalizing them against U.S. Census Bureau population estimates to ensure an accurate comparison across states of different sizes.
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