Matthew Hartwig
CCSO
PORT CHARLOTTE — A Charlotte County man is charged with leaving the scene of a crash after his pickup hit a electric scooter driven by a juvenile, deputies reported.
Matthew William Hartwig, 47, of 17 Den Helder Ave., Punta Gorda, was charged with leaving the scene of a crash with property damage, jail records show.
The crash happened at 8:20 a.m. Wednesday at Midway and Orlando boulevards in Port Charlotte, according to Charlotte County Sheriff’s Deputy Tristan Nasky’s report.
A juvenile told the deputy he had been riding his electric scooter west on the sidewalk along Midway.
As he was crossing Orlando, “a truck turned in front of him, striking him,” the report states.
The deputy didn’t note any injuries to the juvenile, but stated the scooter had minor damage to its handle, and the juvenile’s helmet had “significant damage.”
A witness who had seen the crash followed the truck, a white older-model Ford F-150, to a home on Richter Street.
The witness, Michael Wemheuer, told 911 operators that he was following the truck. Deputies arrived at the home a few minutes later.
Wemheuer identified Hartwig. “The green T-shirt, the hat, the ballcap, yep, that’s him,” the report states.
Deputy Nasky arrived and spoke with Hartwig. He said while driving he “heard a bang,” the report states. He said he looked back, but did not see anything.
The deputy asked if Hartwig noticed his mirror had fallen off of his truck.
Hartwig said he didn’t look at his mirror, but “when he got home, he noticed his mirror was knocked backward so he went to fix it,” he report states.
That’s when deputies arrived at the home.
“I observed the passenger side mirror to be completely shattered, shards of glass to be all over the front passenger side window, and a large scrape from the front passenger side door to the rear passenger side quarter panel of the truck,” the deputy reported.
Hartwig was arrested and booked into the Charlotte County Jail and remained there Thursday with no bond. He was also cited for failure to yield the right of way to a pedestrian, the report states.
He has a criminal arraignment set for Oct. 15 at the Charlotte County Justice Center in Punta Gorda.