An East Lake High School student suffered serious injuries Monday morning near campus after being struck by a vehicle that initially left the scene.
According to the Florida Highway Patrol, a 15-year-old girl was in the crosswalk on Ridgeline Boulevard at East Lake Road when the crash happened.
The student was hit when a driver pulled around a car stopped at the light and completed a right turn. Troopers said 20-year-old Joseph Matthew Darezzo then left the scene in his 2005 Chevrolet, returning about an hour later.
The student sustained serious injuries and was transported by helicopter to Bayfront Health St. Petersburg. The student's condition has not been released.
When Darezzo returned to the scene, he was arrested and charged with leaving the scene of a crash with injury and ticketed with making an improper turn.
We spoke to a legal expert at Thomas Cooley Law School who said a new state law is bringing stiffer penalties to convicted hit-and-run drivers who cause injuries.
"As a third degree felony, it cannot exceed five years, but it gives the judge discretion from zero to five to sentence you,” said Professor Karen Fultz, Thomas Cooley Law School. “If you suffer serious injury, which was the first report of this young lady, then the penalty would be, well it's still a 2nd degree with the sentencing not to exceed 15 years, so that leaves the judge discretion between that period of time."
The law also imposes a four-year mandatory-minimum prison sentence for drivers convicted of leaving a scene with a death as well as boosts the sentence for DUI drivers who leave fatal crash scenes to a minimum of four years.
Anyone leaving a fatal crash scene will have his or her license revoked for three years.