Florida runner spends seven years searching for the car that hit him

Daryl Willmore, an avid runner from Orlando, Fla., has been running the same four-kilometre route every day for seven years, but not because he loves the scenery. He is searching for the driver who mowed him down as he ran across the street in 2015.

Willmore wears a reflective jacket with a bright band attached to his waist. “I am careful when crossing the road,” Willmore tells local news. “I follow all the rules. I stop at every stop sign. I only cross where I’m supposed to cross.” But even so, he says, a driver struck him as he ran across the street.

The surveillance video above indicates after Willmore was struck, the driver took off. “The driver approached so fast,” Willmore said. “He stopped for 10 seconds, then took off.” According to Fox 35 Orlando, Willmore pulled himself up on the curb, but no other drivers pulled over to help him. 

Willmore eventually called the police, but they sent him to the Florida Highway Patrol (FHP), the agency tasked with investigating traffic crashes and criminal violations on state highways. According to a report, the incident happened in a residential area about one kilometre from Interstate 4.

The FHP took around five hours to reach the scene, and told Willmore they could not help without information about the vehicle that hit him. The only information Willmore has is the colour, type and shape of the vehicle from the surveillance footage.

Now, Willmore is doing everything he can to find the driver, which involves running by the place he was hit every day. “I want to look them in the eye and ask them why they think it’s okay to hit someone,” he told local news.

Willmore is an artist and pharmacist in the Orlando area. He refuses to give up hope or stop running the route until the driver is caught.