And they aren’t all of the aggravating fender bender variety. Some involve personal injury issues, even resulting in the tragic loss of life, which leaves loved ones and families wondering how any driver could do such a thing. And, perhaps more critically, asking what the law can do to help them.

Case in point: Jim Sanders and his wife, Joyce, used to take daily walks after moving to Sarasota from Indiana. “Eight miles every day was her thing,” Jim Sanders told Tampa TV station WTVT.

One day, as the couple was walking down a sidewalk in Sarasota, the sprinkler system came on. So, they moved their walking route onto the bike path. A truck subsequently hit Joyce Sanders.

“I can still see her getting hit and flying through the air,” says her husband. “It’s hard to get out of your mind.”

The driver kept on going, even though Joyce was lying in the roadway. She died there. And her husband has been trying to find out who the driver was and why that person left the scene. Sanders maintains that he doesn’t think that anyone did what they did on purpose. “It was probably an accident,” he says, “but you’re just making it worse by not admitting what you did.”

According to Florida law enforcement officials, hit and run crashes are on the upswing, with more than 80,000 such incidents having occurred last year. Hit and runs that resulted in fatalities have increased by 23% from 2013 to 2014 – with pedestrians accounting for almost half of the victims in those cases.

“Leaving the scene makes the situation worse, not only for those who flee, but even more so for the victims left behind,” says Terry L. Rhodes, executive director of the  Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. “It is crucial that all individuals involved in a crash, including witnesses to a crash, contact 911 and remain at the scene until help arrives. Every life matters and every second counts.”