Florida lawmakers will consider a bill next year designed to help police track down hit-and-run drivers by requiring auto repair shops to collect and submit crash reports before repairs can begin.

Senate Bill 194 is named the Lilly Glaubach Act, after the 13-year-old Osprey girl who was killed while riding her bike home from school in 2022.

The bill, filed by state Sen. Joe Gruters of Sarasota, would require repair shops to ask the owner of a vehicle damaged in a collision to provide a written crash report from police before a written estimate is prepared.

If the owner does not provide a crash report, the repair shop would be required to complete its own report that would be sent to local law enforcement within 24 hours. Information in those reports would contain:

• The name and address of the repair shop.
• The vehicle identification number, year, license tag number, make, model, and color of the damaged vehicle and the name, phone number, physical description, and address of the owner of the vehicle or the person in possession of the vehicle.
• A description of the damage.

There are provisions in the bill to allow reports to be filed electronically. Local law enforcement would provide repair shops with software to file reports online, or even provide a computer if a shop did not already have one.

Failing to file a report would be a second-degree misdemeanor. Repair shops could also lose their state registration for failing to file.

Bill Sparked by Osprey Incident 

On Aug. 16, 2022, Lilly Glaubach was in a crosswalk on East Bay Street on her way home from Pine View School when she was hit by a sedan driven by then-66-year-old David Chang. Despite having substantial damage to his windshield and front-end, police said Chang fled the scene after the crash.

A woman driving nearby noticed the damage to his car and took photos of the car and license plate and notified the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office. The Florida Highway Patrol found Chang's car less than 24 hours later at an auto repair shop in Tampa.

Investigators say Chang told the repair shop the damage had been caused by a falling tree. Chang was arrested at his home.

Lilly died from her injuries nearly two weeks after the crash.

A year later, Chang was convicted of leaving the scene of a crash that caused great injury or death and tampering with evidence, and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Chang's lawyer has filed an appeal, asking the court to reconsider the sentence, arguing 15 years exceeds sentencing guidelines.

The motion to reconsider also questions Judge Donna Padar's objectivity in the case. Padar, a Pine View School alumna, cried during testimony at the sentencing hearing. "It is respectfully suggested that this Court’s personal emotional connection to the Pine View community may well have unintentionally affected the Court’s decision," the motion says.

Repair Shops Fear Delays

Collision repair specialists say they fear the new law will create more work for already busy shops.

The Society of Collision Repair Specialists, in an article on its website, Repairer Driven News, says Gruters' bill "would add extra workload to already-stretched repair facilities by requiring them to submit, on a daily basis, documentation of each damaged vehicle they worked on the previous day."

Quoting an auto shop owner in Jacksonville, the article says the extra work could also affect consumers. “It would slow down [...] turnaround time on automobiles [...] and it would add to the time that it would take in order to complete an automobile,” the auto shop owner said.

According to the Florida Highway Patrol, over the past five years, there were 515,957 hit-and-run crashes that resulted in 1,251 fatalities. That, on average, is 103,191 hit-and-run crashes resulting in 250 deaths per year in the state. Florida recorded 104,895 hit-and-run crashes and 266 fatalities last year.

Gruters was unavailable for comment, a staffer in his Tallahassee office said.

The bill was filed on Oct. 12. The Florida Legislature convenes Jan. 9, 2024, for its annual 60-day session.

Jim DeLa is a reporter for the Community News Collaborative. Reach him at [email protected]