Troopers said a woman was critically injured and the driver left the scene before the wrecked Lexus was found nearby.
ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — A hit-and-run crash on Lee Road near Adanson Street killed a man in a wheelchair and a dog Thursday night and left a woman critically injured, as Florida Highway Patrol troopers searched Friday for the driver of a 2021 Lexus ES.
The crash quickly became both a fatal traffic investigation and a criminal search. Troopers said the driver veered off the eastbound side of Lee Road shortly before 9 p.m., struck two people and a dog on a raised median, then kept going. By Friday, investigators had located the Lexus abandoned in a nearby parking lot, but had not publicly identified the driver or the victims while next-of-kin notifications continued.
According to troopers, the Lexus was heading east on Lee Road as it approached Adanson Street when it left the roadway and climbed onto the curbed center median. The vehicle hit a man in a wheelchair, a woman and a dog who were on the median at the time. Investigators said the force of the crash also sent debris from the wheelchair into a pickup truck that had been stopped in the westbound left-turn lane. The man in the wheelchair died at the scene, and the dog also was killed. The woman was taken to a hospital in stable but critical condition. Troopers said the Lexus continued east after the crash instead of stopping.
By Friday morning, investigators said the car had been found unoccupied in a nearby parking lot with damage consistent with the crash. That discovery answered one immediate question about where the vehicle went, but left larger ones unresolved. Troopers had not said who was driving, whether the driver was the registered owner, or how long it took investigators to find the sedan after the collision. They also had not released the name, age or hometown of the man who was killed, and the woman’s identity had not been made public. The driver of the indirectly struck pickup, identified in local reports as a 20-year-old Orlando man, was not injured and remained at the scene, according to troopers.
The location is a busy stretch of road in Orange County where traffic moves through a mix of commercial lots, turn lanes and signalized intersections. That setting matters in a case like this because investigators often need to piece together a crash from vehicle damage, debris patterns, surveillance video and witness statements. In this case, troopers have said the Lexus left the roadway before reaching the intersection area and traveled onto a raised median where the victims were positioned. Local outlets reported the vehicle as a 2021 Lexus ES, a detail that may help investigators trace ownership, recent use and who had access to the car in the hours before the crash. What remains unknown is why the car left the road.
The legal path ahead will depend on who investigators determine was behind the wheel. Florida law treats leaving the scene of a crash involving death as a serious felony, and the injury to the surviving woman could add more charges if a suspect is identified. For now, troopers are in the evidence-gathering stage. They said Friday that they were still working to identify the driver and complete victim identification. Investigators typically coordinate with the medical examiner, review security footage from nearby businesses, inspect the vehicle for forensic evidence and compare physical damage with the scene record. No arrest had been announced Friday, and troopers had not scheduled a public briefing beyond their written updates.
The facts released so far are spare, but they show a violent and sudden crash that shattered a roadway median and struck people who were outside the flow of traffic. Troopers described the woman’s condition as stable but critical, a phrase that suggested she survived the first night after the collision but remained badly hurt. The pickup driver, though uninjured, became part of the investigation because debris from the wheelchair hit his truck. Troopers also asked the public for help, saying anyone who saw the crash or knows who was driving the Lexus should contact FHP or Crimeline. That appeal underscored the central unresolved point in the case: the vehicle has been found, but the person responsible had not been publicly named.
As of Friday afternoon, the driver had not been identified publicly, the victims’ names had not been released, and the woman remained hospitalized. The next major step is likely a formal identification of the driver, followed by any arrest or criminal charge announced by troopers.
Author note: Last updated March 20, 2026.