http://www.nbc-2.com/articles/readartic ... 471&z=3&p=

BONITA SPRINGS: A three year old boy was hit by a vehicle while riding his bike Tuesday night. Deputies say the driver who hit the boy didn't have a valid driver's license, so he was arrested.

Three-year old Angel Mercado was riding his bike across from his home on Safari Drive when a Ford Explorer slammed into him.

"He just went through the street. He didn't look both ways," said Diana Garay, who witnessed the accident.

Garay spotted the boy moments before the crash. It turns out she was the only person who saw him.

"The parents were inside. I mean they are usually outside, one of them watching him and there was nobody," said Garay.

Jose De Jesus Martinez, Angel's uncle, said the boy is expected to recover.

The man who deputies say hit him, 26 year old Jorge Aguilar, has been arrested and charged with driving without a license. It was the third time he has been caught.

"No I didn't know that, I didn't. If I would have known. No wonder he said he was nervous," said Garay.

Getting a citation for driving without a license is common in Southwest Florida. We pulled the tickets proving it.

Over the last 14 months, law enforcement in Lee County wrote more than 3,000 tickets for driving without a valid license.

In Collier County, law enforcement wrote 5,400 tickets for unlicensed drivers.

"We see a lot of repeat offenders. We, I've actually had, I've been on traffic stop where people just got out of jail for having been arrested for no drivers license and they are out the next day driving their car," said Sergeant Bruce Sigler.

Sigler says a majority of the tickets he writes for driving without a license are to migrants. He knows it's ineffective.

"The only way that I see to get around this is to start making the people that are repeat offenders on this do serious jail time," said Sigler.

Despite what happened to three-year old Angel Mercado, his uncle doesn't agree with Sigler, he is sympathetic.

"If the would have the immigrants, you know, have a license, a least a drivers license, that would help them move to work," said Martinez.

Deputies say the boy suffered severe head injuries and was flown to All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg.