MIAMI – Carolina Florez, known to her followers as “Caro the Tour Guide,” is a popular content creator and owner of a South Florida travel agency, but what started out as a usual Thursday for Florez took a shocking turn when she was the victim of a hit and run incident in Miami.

Now, Florez is using her platform to share her recovery journey and raise awareness about the challenges faced by people in wheelchairs in the city.

“It was really shocking,” Florez said.

Florez said she was riding her scooter near SW 8th Street and SW 1st Avenue on Thursday around 6 p.m. when she was struck and thrown into the street by the driver of a white Porsche.

“I had to brake really hard, and actually there wasn’t a lot of impact with the car, but it was still enough impact to make me take off,” Florez said.

As Florez lay on the ground in shock, she said the following happened.

“The driver literally looked at me and just said ‘sorry’ – he said ‘sorry’ and then he leaves,” Florez said.

Bystanders helped Florez after the incident.

She ended up spraining both ankles and having bruises all over her body.

Now she uses a wheelchair to get around.

“For the first two days, I was crawling everywhere, using a skateboard to get around my apartment,” Florez said.

Since the accident, Florez has been documenting what it means to need a wheelchair to get around and sharing it with her more than 33,000 followers on Instagram.

Florez said using a wheelchair during his recovery was an eye-opening experience.

“We should all get into a wheelchair, whether we are disabled or not, and see how easy it is to get around the city, just to raise awareness of how inaccessible the city has become for people in wheelchairs ” Florez said. .

She hopes the city will invest in more safety measures and protected lanes for pedestrians and those who use bikes and scooters throughout Miami, especially in Brickell.

“We just don’t have the safe and equitable urban design in our city that a world-class city should have,” Florez said.

We have contacted the City of Miami Police Department for more information on the case, including whether a suspect has been identified, and we are still awaiting those details.