Hernando Beach Father Seeks Driver Who Caused Car to Flip on U.S. 19

A Hernando Beach father is asking the public for help finding a pickup truck driver he says ran him off U.S. 19 early Saturday morning, flipping his car across the highway near Spring Hill Drive.

Jack Reid, a husband and the father of a 1-year-old daughter, was driving on U.S. 19 around 1:30 a.m. when he says a large pickup truck came up from behind, tried to move into the next lane, and clipped the corner of his car. The hit sent his vehicle spinning across the roadway. It flipped and landed back on its wheels. The windshield shattered. The car was totaled.

Reid walked away without serious injuries. He says a driver who saw the crash happen turned around and stopped to check on him before anyone else arrived.

The Hernando County Sheriff's Office confirms it is investigating the crash. No driver has been identified yet.

Reid says the crash didn't fully hit him until later. He says it's left him holding his daughter a little tighter, and he wants the video to do more than help catch the driver. He hopes it reminds other people on U.S. 19 to slow down and pay attention, especially late at night on a stretch of road that sees its share of speeding traffic between Spring Hill and the rest of the county.

The sheriff's office has not released a description of the truck or said whether charges are expected once a driver is identified. For now, the only lead is the dash camera footage Reid keeps circulating, and a stretch of highway where, for a few seconds early Saturday, he wasn't sure he'd walk away.

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Header photo: DanTD / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)