Judge sets $100,000 bond in Fort Lauderdale hit-and-run bicyclist death

A Fort Lauderdale judge set a $100,000 bond Thursday for Don Janea Smith, 22, after prosecutors said she fled the scene of a crash that killed bicyclist Shelley Lewis. Prosecutors asked for the bond, a ban on driving and surrender of Smith’s passport, and the judge granted those terms during Smith’s first court appearance.

The crash happened about 6:40 a.m. in the 2000 block of Southeast 17th Street, where investigators said Lewis was riding in the eastbound lanes when she was struck by a dark-colored vehicle. Police said the driver left the scene. Lewis was taken to Broward Health Medical Center, where she died.

Smith is charged with leaving the scene of a crash involving death and with tampering with or fabricating physical evidence. The bond decision keeps the case moving through the court system while Fort Lauderdale officials and commuters are left with the immediate human cost of another deadly hit-and-run on a major city corridor.

The collision also shut down the eastbound lanes on the Southeast 17th Street causeway bridge for hours before traffic reopened. That bridge is a key connector in Fort Lauderdale, carrying commuters, visitors and cyclists between neighborhoods and the beach corridor, which made the closure ripple far beyond the crash scene.

The timing of the crash added to the concern for people who use that stretch of road every day. It happened at dawn, when visibility can be limited and drivers may be moving at higher speeds. For cyclists and pedestrians on one of Fort Lauderdale’s busiest links, the case has sharpened attention on how much protection is built into the corridor, and how much depends on driver caution and enforcement.

Lewis’s death now stands not only as a criminal case, but as a reminder of how quickly a hit-and-run can disrupt traffic, emergency response and daily travel across a route that many Broward residents rely on.