A hit-and-run driver who critically injured a man visiting Miami for Ultra Music Fest early Sunday morning is out of jail Tuesday morning.
Olivia Bennett, 26, was arrested Monday and charged with leaving the scene of a crash causing serious bodily injury and reckless driving, police said. She was being held on $12,500 bond, jail records showed. Bennett, who is listed as a dancer on an arrest affidavit, posted bond overnight and walked out of jail early Tuesday.
Alexander Sanghwan, 22, was in town from Ontario, Canada, for the Ultra Music Festival. Miami-Dade Police said he and his friends had just left a northeast Miami-Dade club around 5:30 a.m. The group was looking for a cab near the intersection of NE 5th Avenue and 180th Street when police said a driver struck Sanghwan and fled the scene without rendering aid.
Sanghwan's parents Robbie and Patty Sanghwan were at the hospital Monday morning. They told NBC 6 South Florida they expect to learn today whether their son will need brain surgery.
"He was hit from behind," Sanghwan's mother Patty said. "Didn't have any opportunity, no chance to move out of the way, to defend himself."
Sanghwan was transported to Jackson Memorial Hospital's Ryder Trauma Center with multiple injuries. He was listed in critical condition.
"He came here to have fun and this kind of thing happens," his father Robbie said. "It's unreal."
Police said it is a reminder that leaving the scene of an accident is always a more serious crime.
"Now this driver could be charged with a felony for leaving the scene of an accident," Detective George Wilhelm said, adding that it was a hard enough impact that the driver should have known a crash occurred. "So now they're looking at time in jail when it could have been a simple ticket if they had remained on scene."
Investigators recovered car parts at the scene and believe the driver was behind the wheel of a 2011 navy blue BMW 335i with heavy front-end damage.
The car was later found abandoned in the parking lot of Tootsies Cabaret, police said. Bennett's attorney contacted police saying she wanted to turn herself in, police said.
Bennett doesn't have a Florida driver's license and she was unable to provide proof of a driver's license issued in another state, police said.
Anyone with information is urged to contact Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at (305) 471-TIPS (8477).
