POLK COUNTY, Fla. — Three fatal hit-and-runs have happened in Polk County in just the span of three days.
The latest happened in Bartow, where an 18-year-old Bartow High School student, Zachariah Clabough, was hit while walking to school.
"He's probably up in heaven right now wearing his Jordans that he just got and his baggy jeans, thinking he's cool. He is. He's a pretty cool guy,” said his friend, Brianna Rivere.
According to his sister and friends, Zachariah was a “sweet, funny & hardworking young man” who was saving up for his first car.
On Sunday night, a 58-year-old Alabama man, Willie Brewer, was killed in a hit-and-run along West 10th Street just east of Wabash Ave. in Lakeland.
On Tuesday night, a 27-year-old from Ocala was killed in a hit-and-run on Davenport Boulevard near US-27 in Davenport.
“Heartbreaking,” said Trish Pfieffer. “As a parent, it’s heartbreaking.”
Pfeiffer is a Bartow city commissioner and the chair of Polk County’s Transportation Planning Organization (TPO), which tries to make sure the county has a safe, reliable transportation network.
Pfeiffer plans to ask the TPO to investigate the three most recent hit-and-runs to see if infrastructure played a role.
“So getting the whole story is the first step, and then, going from there, trying to figure out what we can do to prevent this,” she said.
According to Pfeiffer, as the county grows faster than most others in the country, it has magnified pressing transportation needs. However, the available funding is limited.
“There’s never enough money, but just because we know that doesn’t mean that we can’t look for more,” she said.
Last November, county commissioners decided against asking voters if they’re in favor of a half-cent sales tax to fund transportation projects. However, Pfeiffer thinks it might be time to have that discussion again.
“We need to look at all the options on the table,” she said. “We need to ask the people, ‘What do you think?’”
As for the recent hit-and-runs, Florida Highway Patrol troopers made an arrest in the Bartow case Wednesday afternoon.
Polk County Sheriff’s Office says it has strong leads in the Lakeland case. However, anyone with information is asked to call the sheriff’s office at 863-298-6200.
In the Davenport case, Florida Highway Patrol troopers are looking for the driver of a black Dodge Challenger. Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to call *FHP (*347) or Crime Stoppers at **TIPS.
