Despite a deadly accident at the Auburndale Speedway
Saturday night, the races will go on this coming weekend.
Tyler Morr, a 12-year-old from Arcadia, had been
stabilized with life-threatening injuries at Lakeland Regional Medical Center on
Saturday night before getting transferred to All Children's Hospital, where he
died Wednesday afternoon.
The track's owner, Rex Guy, said it was like losing one of
his own children.
Guy said Morr was in the outside lane in his stock car,
when he struck another car in the inside lane, but then lost control and slammed
into the outside wall.
There were four other drivers who were not harmed. Guy
said all of the drivers were properly harnessed and wearing helmets.
And their cars are not supposed to exceed 45 miles per
hour. The Polk County Sheriff's Office has not yet been able to determine how
fast Morr was going when his car crashed.
As you might imagine, reaction around town is mixed, about
young kids, no matter how experienced, getting behind the wheels of cars.
"You never have enough experience," said Jackie Withers.
"Even if you're 18 or 23, you still don't have enough experience."
"I think there should be an older age limit , 15 to 16 is
what I'd look at you know," said Eric Guthrie, "when they start getting their
driving permits and stuff."
"If my daughters were racing, I would know the risks,"
said Tammy Ryan. "I mean, you still want them to do what they do, what they
enjoy in life, that's ultimately it I guess, and unfortunately, he died doing
what he enjoyed."
This weekend they will be racing again at Auburndale, and
the track's owner said they'll be passing a hat to raise donations for the Morr
family.
Guy said they've gotten calls from all over the country,
folks wanting to help them out.
posted Feb 21, 2012 5:40 AM by Fabienne Adams
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updated Feb 21, 2012 5:43 AM
]
MIAMI BEACH (CBSMiami) – Bond was set Friday at $260,000 for the man accused
of hitting and killing a 45-year-old man on Miami Beach.
Joao Paulo Escudero Mauro, 20, of Aventura, stood in front of a judge Friday.
He is charged with DUI manslaughter, vehicular homicide, cocaine possession and
carrying a driver’s license with a fake birthday on it.
The judge said once Escudero Mauro posts the bond, he’ll be held on
GPS-monitored house arrest at his family’s home in Aventura. He was also ordered
to surrender his passport after prosecutors argued he is a flight risk.
Police said Escudero Mauro was driving a silver Mercedes SUV northbound on
Collins Avenue at a high rate of speed early Thursday morning when he suddenly
swerved into the parking lane at 39th Street.
According to Mauro’s arrest affidavit, he was doing more than 60 mph on a
street where the posted limit is 30 mph.
The SUV struck 45-year-old Russell Knudson who was trying to load his bike
into a gold Toyota and then slammed into a light pole which toppled to the
ground. Knudson has just left work.
Neither the driver of the Toyota or the six people in the SUV was hurt.
A small bag of cocaine was found on the scene and Escudero Mauro’s arrest
report said officers noted a “white powdery substance in his left nostril.”
His defense attorney argued Friday that it was simply dust from the air bag
that went off.
“Judge, there is nothing in this probable cause affidavit indicating that he
was driving and he was impaired,” said the attorney.
The judge asked about the white, powdery substance on his nostrils and the
defense lawyer replied, “It was simply from the air bag that deployed in his
face.”
The prosecutor countered with the argument that Escudero Mauro failed all of
the field sobriety tests, however, police said on-scene breathalyzer test was
below the legal limit at .007.
During questioning, Mauro said he had been drinking earlier in the evening.
He also said he swerved to avoid hitting a vehicle which had stopped in front of
him.
According to police, Mauro had on him a Brazilian state identification card
which had an altered birth date which indicated that he was older than 21 years
old.
Police said Mauro is from a wealthy family in Brazil and would be considered
a flight risk if released on bail. The Brazilian Consulate was notified of his
arrest.
Mauro was a racecar driver. Online there are numerous images and articles
about him noting that he raced in the U.S. and Canada.
Another illegal street race with a Honda Civic and Integra : Three people are killed and no racing charges are pending because citations were not given at the scene of the crime. The crash happened about 12:30 a.m. Dec. 9, and several witnesses interviewed by troopers described a night of street races and flashy cars on display along U.S. 27, a dark highway that mainly runs north and south, with two lanes in each direction.
A witness said about 15 cars were parked to watch, while an Integra, Civic and another vehicle were in the roadway. The Integra and Civic were at one point stopped side by side on the roadway, witnesses told investigators.
Two drivers have been issued traffic tickets after a triple-fatal crash on U.S. 27 in 2010, officials say. (Joe Dobson, correspondent / Sun Sentinel file) Sun Sentinel
4:37 a.m. EST, February 6, 2012
Two survivors of a crash on U.S. 27 that killed three people won't face street racing charges, even though authorities concluded that racing-related activity was involved, says a newly released report from the Florida Highway Patrol.
Highway Patrol investigators, relying on physical evidence and witness statements, alleged that Angel Lazo, 19, and Raymon Garcia, 20, "were staging for a racing competition" on the desolate highway when the collision happened in December 2010, the traffic homicide report said.
Though the drivers, both of Miami-Dade County, received no street racing charges, they have since been issued non-criminal citations accusing them of improperly stopping their cars on U.S. 27 near the Everglades, about seven miles north of Alligator Alley in Broward County, court records show.
A semitrailer rear-ended their Integra and Honda Civic, killing three passengers: Anthony Perez, 19, Ileana E. Mira, 19, and Dairon Ledesma, 15, all from Miami-Dade. Lazo, Garcia and two others were injured.
The Highway Patrol said it consulted with the Broward State Attorney's Office after recommending misdemeanor street racing and negligence charges, in addition to the traffic citations. The State Attorney's Office, citing the pending cases, said it could not provide documents about why only citations were pursued.
Lazo's lawyer, Paul Jon Layne, said the absence of charges was validation that the drivers weren't drag racing and challenging the traffic tickets will be the next installment of the yearlong crash saga. A Broward court hearing for both defendants is scheduled Wednesday.
"Our client wasn't doing anything wrong," Layne said. "He just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time."
Lazo, who according to his lawyer suffered a skull fracture, told the news media the day after the crash that he wasn't racing. He said he was having car trouble and instructed Garcia to follow behind him as he pulled over, according to news reports.
"All I remember is my car started doing something, misfiring," Lazo said at the time. "So I told Raymon, 'Raymon, get behind me. Follow me. I'm going to pull over, up ahead.'"
In a phone interview this month, Garcia's mother, Yanes Legra, 40, said her son suffered a brain injury and has no recollection of the crash. Garcia and his family have yet to regain normalcy, Legra said.
"Unfortunately, his friends perished. It wasn't his fault," she said. "Everyone has suffered from that case." Of the pending citations, she said, "We just want everything to come to an end."
Lazo's lawyer and relatives of those killed in the crash have scrutinized the actions of the semitrailer driver, who was cleared of wrongdoing by the Highway Patrol. "He's a professional driver who has to anticipate problems and disabled vehicles and things on the road," Layne said.
According to the Highway Patrol report:
The crash happened about 12:30 a.m. Dec. 9, and several witnesses interviewed by troopers described a night of street races and flashy cars on display along U.S. 27, a dark highway that mainly runs north and south, with two lanes in each direction.
A witness said about 15 cars were parked to watch, while an Integra, Civic and another vehicle were in the roadway. The Integra and Civic were at one point stopped side by side on the roadway, witnesses told investigators.
Under questioning by a trooper, the semitrailer truck's driver, Placid Ferdinand, 43, from Crosby, Texas, said that when he was farther south on U.S. 27 before the crash, he saw an Integra and Civic making a U-turn from the southbound to northbound lanes of the highway.
Later, Ferdinand was in the right northbound lane when an unknown car made a sudden lane change from behind his vehicle into the left northbound lane.
The car's headlights produced a blinding glare to Ferdinand's sideview mirror. That delayed Ferdinand's perception of the Civic and Integra, both of which were stopped ahead in the lane the semitrailer truck was in.
The cars had their headlights activated and taillights illuminated, but neither had its brake pedal engaged. That left any driver behind them to likely think the cars were moving.
The brake lights not being activated gave Ferdinand "no time to avoid the hazard ahead," considering the weight of his semitrailer, the highway's 65 mph posted limit and the lack of overhead lighting on the road.
When Ferdinand realized the cars were parked, he tried to stop but could not. He said he was unable to swerve in either direction because of the many parked cars and spectators on the shoulders and medians of U.S. 27.
The semitrailer truck rear-ended the Integra, driven by Garcia, and the impact caused the Integra to rear-end the Civic, driven by Lazo. The three passengers who died all were in Garcia's car.
MIAMI, FL (BocaNewsNow.com) — Former City of Miami Police Officer
Vernell Reynolds, a resident of the City of Hollywood, has been indicted. The
U.S. Attorneys Office alleges that Reynolds embezzled funds from the Miami
Community Police Benevolent Association. The official press release from the
U.S. Attorney follows:
Wifredo A. Ferrer, United States Attorney for the Southern District of
Florida; John V. Gillies, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of
Investigations (FBI), Miami Field Office; Richard Walker, Special Agent in
Charge, United States Department of Labor (DOL), Office of Inspector General
(DOL-OIG); and Jose A. Gonzalez, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue
Service, Criminal Investigation Division (IRS-CI), announce the indictment of
Vernell Reynolds, a former City of Miami police officer and former president of
the Miami Community Police Benevolent Association (MCPBA), on charges stemming
from her embezzlement of MCPBA funds.
On January 5, 2012, Reynolds, 46, of Hollywood, Florida, was indicted on
16 counts of wire fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1343. The indictment also
seeks forfeiture of the proceeds of the offenses, including more than $200,000.
If convicted, the defendant faces a maximum statutory penalty of 30 years’
imprisonment for each count of wire fraud.
According to the allegations in the indictment, the MCPBA is a private
association of Miami law enforcement officers that operates in Miami-Dade
County. To conduct its affairs, the MCPBA maintained two credit union accounts.
The funds contained in the MCPBA credit union accounts consisted primarily of
the monthly dues of the MCPBA members. The funds in the accounts were held in
trust for the benefit of the MCPBA.
In 2005, Reynolds became the president of the MCPBA. As president,
Reynolds had signature authority over the MCPBA credit union accounts. Reynolds
also possessed and used an ATM/debit card that accessed the MCPBA credit union
accounts. The indictment alleges that as early as September 2008, Reynolds began
stealing money from the MCPBA accounts and using it for her own purposes.
Reynolds’ scheme continued through June 2010.
According to the indictment, Reynolds made unauthorized withdrawals from
the MCPBA credit union accounts, made unauthorized personal purchases with MCPBA
funds and transferred MCPBA funds from the MCPBA accounts to her personal credit
union accounts. The indictment alleges that some of these unauthorized
withdrawals occurred at casinos located in South Florida and on at least one
occasion in California. Reynolds failed to disclose her unauthorized
withdrawals, purchases and transfers to the MCPBA members and presented false
financial information to the MCPBA members to conceal her fraud.
Mr. Ferrer commends the investigative efforts of the FBI, the DOL-OIG and
IRS-CI. Additionally, Mr. Ferrer thanked the City of Miami Police Department
Internal Affairs Section, Anti-Corruption Unit for their significant work on
this matter and for their full cooperation throughout the investigation. This
case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jared E. Dwyer.
An indictment is only an accusation and a defendant is presumed innocent
until and unless proven guilty.
posted Jan 13, 2012 9:59 AM by Fabienne Adams
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updated Jan 20, 2012 8:10 AM
]
Bullrun Rally driver in Audi sports car arrested after crash on Florida's Turnpike
Gregory Roselli, 30, was charged with reckless driving and participating in an unlawful race.
July 15, 2011|By Anika Myers Palm and Jeff Weiner, Orlando Sentinel
A driver who was participating in the famed cross-country Bullrun Rally was arrested Friday when he rear-ended another vehicle after losing a tire while racing on Florida's Turnpike, authorities said.
Investigators say the driver of an Audi R8, had been racing with up to 15 high-end sports cars southbound on the Turnpike in Orange County near State Road 408 when the collision occurred.
The Florida Highway Patrol, responding to calls complaining that the cars were traveling at more than 100 mph, had been on the way to the scene when the crash happened about 10:25 a.m.
Investigators say the right rear tire of 30-year-old Gregory Roselli's Audi separated from the car, sending him barreling into a barrier wall and then into the rear of a 2004 Honda 4-door.
By the time troopers arrived, the rest of the vehicles participating in the event were long gone, said Sgt. Kim Montes, an FHP spokeswoman. Roselli and the Honda driver, 47-year-old Holly Sadler, were unhurt.
Roselli, of Toms River, N.J., was arrested and booked into the Orange County Jail on charges of participating in an unlawful race and reckless driving. His bail was set at $1,200.
The Bullrun Rally started in Las Vegas on July 8 and is expected to end Friday in Miami. A website for the annual event describes it as "an epic eight-day rolling party" featuring about 100 luxury cars.
Entry is by invitation only, and celebrities such as Kim Kardashian, Dennis Rodman, Mario Andretti and Carl Lewis have participated in the past.
This year, participants include NASCAR driver Robby Gordon, rapper Vanilla Ice, and actor Ice-T, according to the website. The entry fee is $20,000.
posted Oct 27, 2011 6:59 AM by Fabienne Adams
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updated Oct 27, 2011 7:52 AM
]
Quintessential pictures of innocence:
Dan Wheldon sitting on top of the go-kart with Formula-one
champion Jenson Button at the wheel. For
many this is the romantic photo that will morph into disaster twenty years
later. So sorry for your loss is a
shallow expression in the racing industry these days. IMO.
Dan Wheldon leaves behind a beautiful wife, Susie Wheldon (St.
Petersburg Florida) and two very young children.
Dan Wheldon 1978 ~ 2011
Another young family destroyed for the
love of speed.
So sorry for your loss.
The stars will light the sky for you Dan Wheldon , Always and Forever.
Two-time Indy 500 winner Al Unser Jr. was arrested early Thursday September 22.2011 on a charge of aggravated driving while intoxicated in New Mexico after what appeared to be a street race, police said.
Unser told the arresting officer "you caught the slower guy," according to Jennifer Brown, an attorney and the public information officer for the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Department in a phone conversation with Inside Line.
Unser, 49, is scheduled for a bond arraignment on October 12, where he will plead guilty or not guilty to aggravated DWI.
ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico — Two-time Indy 500 winner Al Unser Jr. was arrested early Thursday on a charge of aggravated driving while intoxicated here after what appeared to be a street race, according to the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Department.
Unser told the arresting officer "you caught the slower guy," according to Jennifer Brown, an attorney and the public information officer for the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Department in a phone conversation with Inside Line.
Unser was driving a white 2011 Chevrolet Suburban at the time of the incident. He appeared to be racing an unidentified black sedan that got away.
"The deputy was running radar and these two vehicles were westbound on Paseo del Norte, a four-lane highway," Brown said. "At one point, the deputy lost sight, but caught up. The white utility vehicle pulled over. The deputy didn't confirm they were racing, but Mr. Unser made some admission to the effect that 'you caught the slower guy.' I guess 100 mph is not a lot for him."
The deputy clocked Unser at 101 mph. Brown said Unser was formally charged with aggravated DWI, a charge that indicates his blood-alcohol content was twice the legal limit.
Unser, 49, was released from jail on his own recognizance. He is scheduled for a bond arraignment on October 12 in Bernalillo County Metro Court where he will plead guilty or not guilty to the charge. He lives in the area.
The Associated Press reported that Unser pleaded no contest to a "driving under the influence" charge in 2007. As part of a plea deal, he lost his driver license for 90 days.
Unser, now retired, is the son of Indy 500 racing legend Al Unser and the nephew of three-time Indy winner Bobby Unser. He won the Indy 500 in 1992 and 1994.
posted Aug 24, 2011 1:50 PM by Fabienne Adams
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updated Nov 7, 2011 6:09 AM
]
Should NASCAR allow Kyle Busch to drive with a suspended license?
Writers from around the Tribune Co. discuss whether Kyle Bush, who had his driver's license suspended, should be allowed behind the wheel of a NASCAR stock car. Weigh in with your comment.
Keith Groller, Morning Call
We all know too well a few folks who have been, uh, shall we say, “trapped” into a few tickets over the years. But Kyle Busch going 128 in a 45-mph zone borders on the insane — even for Busch.
Maybe the police that caught him should be offered a NASCAR opportunity since they did something Junior and others have trouble doing every Sunday — catch Busch.
NASCAR and Joe Gibbs Racing should send a message here and suspend Busch for the same duration of his other driving penalty.
But this being pro sports and being more about the money than anything else, that won’t happen. NASCAR needs the antagonizing Busch, smirking smile and all, front and center all the way through “The Chase.”]
Barry Stavro, Los Angeles Times
Yes. Any other citizen in Busch’s position would face the same challenge: arranging transportation to work. Once there, whether the job is pushing a broom or managing a hedge fund, they’d be allowed to put in their hours. It’s also worth noting that NASCAR ovals are not public streets, they are closed circuits. Furthermore, anyone else in Busch’s legal situation would also be allowed to drive a sit-down lawn mower or a tractor on their property or pilot a motorboat. Speeding over 100 mph is a significant traffic offense. But society views other traffic crimes far more seriously — such as a DUI. Busch is serving his penalty. As long as someone else drives him to work, let Busch do his job.
Shawn Courchesne, Hartford Courant
Kyle Busch should be allowed to continue in NASCAR because the racing body doesn’t require drivers to possess a state-issued driver’s license to compete.
Clearly Busch’s speeding infraction and the subsequent suspension of his driver’s license make for a unique set of circumstances because he drives a car for a living.
But beyond the fact that the infraction happened in a street car on a public road and Busch just happens to a drive for a living, there are no other correlations between his speeding on the road and his job. Would an NBA player be suspended from playing basketball, the way he makes his living, if he was caught speeding?
What Busch did on a public road has nothing to do with how he makes his living driving vehicles on closed racing circuits. Even if it is difficult to imagine that he was going 128 mph on the street.
Todd Adams, Orlando Sentinel/South Florida Sun Sentinel
Kyle Busch was a dummy when he needlessly put lives in danger on the road during his crazy speeding incident, and he deserves to lose his driver’s license in the real world. Still, he also deserves to earn a living like anyone else, so he should be allowed to keep driving in NASCAR.
Lets just call it a work permit -- the same thing most any other driver with a suspended license could get if needed.
Busch should be subject to some discipline, though. Maybe a fine or a deduction of some points. Like the NFL has done under Roger Goodell, NASCAR can and should take action against drivers for bad things they do away from the track and this certainly applies (although some might consider having to deal with the DMV to get his license back punishment enough).
Photo: Kyle Busch talks with journalists after his court appearance in Statesville, N.C. Credit: Todd Sumlin / Charlotte Observer
YouTube Video
November 5, 2011
This is Kyle Busch on the track with no regard for others.
