Boca Raton Man, 59, Charged in Hit-and-Run Accident on Palmetto Park Road

Jayme Lima Neto (Photo: Palm Beach County Jail)

A Boca Raton man has been charged with leaving the scene of an accident after calling police to admit he believed he may have struck another person while driving on Palmetto Park Road.

Jayme Lima Neto, 59, was charged in the incident.

Police were first called to the scene of the accident, at Palmetto Park and SW 2nd Avenue, by a motorist who said he saw a woman crawling on the ground, trying to reach the side of the roadway. The incident occurred July 25 and about 10:30 p.m., according to a police report. The witness used his vehicle to block the eastbound lanes and observed the victim, later identified as Anna Peters, crawling toward the sidewalk where she lay.

The officer spoke with Peters and “did not observe any lacerations, bruises, or any type of injury,” but did say she was struck by a vehicle. A language barrier may have complicated the verbal exchange, the report said. A relative of the victim told police he saw a white vehicle striking Peters as she crossed the intersection, but was unable to provide any additional details regarding the vehicle aside from its color.

Boca Raton Fire-Rescue ultimately transported Peters to a local hospital after she complained of back pain. A canvass of the area in search of security cameras did not yield any results.

According to the report, police received a phone call at 11:39 p.m. the same night from a man later identified as Neto, 59, of Boca Raton, who police that he had been involved in an accident earlier in the evening and may have struck someone with the left mirror of his vehicle. Neto agreed to speak with officers shortly after midnight, telling them he “initially felt the impact but only realized it was a person upon checking his rearview mirrors.” He also told police, according to the report, that he saw rescue vehicles around the scene but did not drive back because he was nervous.

The vehicle in question is alleged to have been a silver 2021 Ford Mustang, which police observed to have had one of its mirrors detached.

Neto was charged with leaving the scene of an accident with injury and released on $5,000 bond. Peters was scheduled for CT scans as a precautionary measure, but a medical report indicated that she had no significant injury other than scraped knees.