Man gets 7½ years for fatal hit-and-run crash

PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) - A Florida man has been sentenced to seven and a half years in prison for a fatal hit-and-run crash with a pedestrian.

The Pensacola News Journal reports that 29-year-old Lucas Beaty was sentenced Friday for failure to stop at the scene of a crash involving death.

Authorities say 56-year-old Eldred Williams was crossing a Pensacola street in November 2017 when Beaty’s truck hit him. Instead of stopping to help, officials say Beaty drove home, parked his truck behind a fence and hid the damage with a garbage can.

Williams died at a hospital shortly after the crash.

Florida Highway Patrol ultimately ruled the collision an accident, saying Beaty would not have been charged if he had remained at the scene.

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Information from: Pensacola (Fla.) News Journal, http://www.pensacolanewsjournal.com