A couple married in Tallahassee last April was killed and their eight-year-old daughter orphaned in a drunk driving auto accident recently. As recounted in this Tallahassee Democrat article, the Havana couple wed at the Tallahassee Moose Lodge last spring after being together for more than ten years and having a daughter. On the evening of October 9, 2009, the couple was driving to the mother’s house to drop off their daughter at her grandparent’s to spend the night. As the couple waited to merge into traffic on the way, a drunk driver crashed his Dodge pickup truck into the back of their two-door Pontiac.
The 30-year-old father and 26-year-old mother were pronounced dead after transportation to Tallahassee Memorial Hospital. The daughter was reportedly riding in the back seat of the car when struck by the drunk driver and was unhurt in the accident. A sergeant on the Florida Highway Patrol said the 62-year-old driver of the truck was clearly intoxicated at the accident scene and was arrested on two counts of DUI manslaughter. The drunk driver reportedly bonded out of the Gadsden County Jail the day after the accident.
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An article published recently in the Orlando Sentinel describes a hit-and-run pedestrian accident that claimed the life of a 16-year-old Leesburg High student from Okahumpka. A car hit the young man as he walked along County Road 33 on October 4 while talking to his girlfriend on his cell phone. After the pedestrian accident, the victim was airlifted to Orlando Regional Medical Center where he died when taken off life support.
The victim’s mother has urged law enforcement authorities to investigate the pedestrian accident, but the lack of publicity in the case has made her uncertain whether or not the police were looking for the driver who struck the young man and fled from the scene. She went public recently with her dissatisfaction about the lack of cooperation and communication in the case.
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A Florida Central News article reports that officials with the Florida Highway Patrol are investigating a recent five-vehicle accident in Lakeland that claimed the lives of three people. FHP officials say that the accident occurred around 4 pm on U.S. Highway 98 just south of Rockridge Road when a Chevrolet pickup truck crashed head-on with a motorcycle. They say the pickup was driven by a 65-year-old woman who veered into the path of a motorcycle operated by a 55-year-old man.
The pickup’s driver was killed in the accident, as was the motorcycle’s passenger-a woman whose identity and age was not released by the FHP when the article was published. The 55-year-old motorcycle rider suffered critical injuries in the accident and was flown to Tampa General Hospital in a helicopter. The 51-year old driver of a Ford pickup truck behind the motorcycle also died in the accident. FHP officials say that he swerved to avoid the initial accident, but crashed into the left front of the oncoming Chevy pickup. The force of the collision caused the Ford pickup to land on its roof.
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A recent Bradenton Herald article describes a Florida pedestrian accident that claimed the lives of two young men who were struck and killed while walking along State Road 70 last August. The Florida Highway Patrol said that the two men were struck by a 2000 Ford truck around 3:25 in the morning on S.R. 70 at Mizell Road. Both men were reportedly walking eastbound on the shoulder of the unlighted road with the flow of vehicle traffic when the truck struck them from behind.
FHP officers investigating the pedestrian accident scene said that one victim was a 23-year-old Sarasota man and the other victim was believed to be around 19-years-old. His name and address had not been released when the article was published. Troopers said that a witness to the accident called 911, and emergency response personnel called the FHP. A FHP spokesperson said that the 18-year-old driver of the truck remained at the accident scene.
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