1. 2015 Hit and Run Awareness Campaign
February 16, 2015
Good Morning, My name is Jamie McWilliams. On April 7, 2002, my son Justin
McWilliams was run over and killed leaving a party in a field in Winter Garden; the
18-year old driver left the scene. Nearly 5-months after Justin’s death, charges were
filed against the driver for leaving the scene with a fatality, only to have those
charges dismissed for what was termed a loophole in the Florida Statutes; Chapter
316, State Uniform Traffic Rules, didn’t apply to private property. The driver of the
vehicle that killed my son walked away without any type of criminal accountability.
Shortly after the Judge’s ruling, I contacted the State Attorney’s Office to see if I
could gain some understanding as to how you could run someone over with a 5,000
lb vehicle and drive away….and not be held accountable in our criminal justice
system. What I was told, very matter-of-factly, was that this was the law and if I
didn’t like it, I should change it.
So the journey began. In June 2004, I met with Representative (now Congressman)
Dennis Ross and Senator Carey Baker, who agreed to draft legislation for the Justin
McWilliams Act. 2-years after I began my quest for legislative justice, The Justin
McWilliams Act was unanimously passed on the last day of the 2006 Legislative
Session; the genesis of this law states that if you hit someone with your vehicle, on
public or private property, you have to stop and remain at the scene; if you leave the
scene of a fatal accident, you risk being charged with a first degree felony, you will
face up to 30-years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
The legislative journey was not an easy one; but one that I would do again. I knew
upon pursuing this change in legislation that it would not affect Justin’s case, but I
also wanted this law in place for the next victim and their family of a hit and run
crash. Additionally, I didn’t lobby for this law with the expectation that every driver
involved in a hit and run crash would be confined to 30-years in prison; rather I
wanted to give our State Attorneys and Judges the opportunity to leverage a more
appropriate sentence for those that have such a complete and intense disregard for
human life, that they would run someone over and leave them out like last week’s
trash.
It has been many years since the passing of the Justin McWilliams Act…and I can
honestly say, I finally feel the tide is turning; it is no longer an option to look at hit
and run crashes as mere “traffic accidents.” With the passing of the Aaron Cohen
Life Protection Act last year, we now have a mandatory 4-year minimum sentence

2. in place for those convicted of leaving the scene of a fatal accident; we have
increased public awareness of hit and run crashes courtesy of our numerous new
reporting agencies; there is a combined effort by law enforcement to find these
people and most importantly, the passion for justice behind the families who
selflessly put their grief in the public eye in an effort to locate these perpetrators.
These things give me hope.
People still ask me how I have managed to remain “strong” and move forward after
Justin’s death. First, I have a daughter who was 15 when she went from being a sibling
to an only child overnight; Justin’s father is still struggling, all these years later, with
anger and grief over losing his first born child and only son. Me, I find great comfort
in helping others. The passing of the Justin McWilliams Act was the beginning of
my healing; increasing awareness of organ, tissue and corneal donation was a
comfort, as Justin was an organ donor and in 2009, I formed a 501 (c)(3) Non-Profit
Organization, Parents Encouraging Confident Choices. This organization is
dedicated to the education of our young people on making confident and
responsible choices. I have now presented “Make The Right Choice” to nearly 20,000
students, from age-10 to age-18, in 3-states. At the age of 54, the good lord has seen
fit to bless me with 20,000 teenagers…lol…who have been respectful, attentive and
above all compassionate, when I am speaking. I simply did what Justin would have
expected of me and that was to move on and make a difference in his memory.