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Published on Wednesday, May 5, 2004
in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune
CHARLOTTE COUNTY -- A young mother, a pair of best friends and an elderly gentleman who enjoyed puttering about in his vegetable garden died in car wrecks on area roadways this year.
Alicia Knights, Justin Bare, Matthew Gonzalez and Augustus Pratt are just a few of the people behind statistics that show traffic fatalities in this county are up dramatically over last year. Charlotte will shatter last year's death toll if fatal accidents continue at this rate.
A dozen people died in traffic accidents in Charlotte County from Jan. 1 through late April, according to the Florida Highway Patrol. During the same period last year, just five people were killed.
Charlotte is the only county in the tri-county area to experience an increase in traffic deaths over last year. FHP records show that 20 people had died on roadways in Sarasota County as of late April, compared with 26 during that period last year. Manatee County had seen 17 deaths by late April; it logged 25 in that period a year ago.
Law enforcement and safety officials say it's too soon to know whether the recent spike in Charlotte is a fluke or an indication of what may lay ahead. Charlotte's death record over the past six years does not show a steady decline or rise in fatalities. The county bottomed out with 18 deaths in 1998, peaked with 39 deaths in 2000 then dropped to 19 deaths in 2003.
"It seems high now, but this may be it for the rest of the year," said Lt. Doug Dodson, FHP spokesman.
But officials acknowledge a variety of factors have contributed to fatal crashes in Southwest Florida in recent years. They point to alcohol, motorists not wearing their seat belts and distracted drivers, among other reasons.
State records show that alcohol contributed to nearly one-third of all traffic fatalities in Florida in 2002. To combat the problem, law enforcement agencies hold sobriety checkpoints in hopes of deterring drunken drivers from hitting the road.
Locally, Pratt, an 83-year-old snowbird from Michigan, died in January after an alleged drunken driver lost control and slammed into his vehicle on Midway Boulevard. The victim was not wearing a seat belt.
"He was the best guy in the world," daughter-in-law Ellen Pratt recalled in a Jan. 29 interview.
Port Charlotte resident Angela Cannizzaro, 21, is set for a June trial on drunken-driving charges in that case.
Knights, 21, was killed in February when her vehicle struck a concrete pole on Midway Boulevard. A state trooper said she had a blood alcohol level of 0.194 -- more than twice the level at which Florida drivers are considered intoxicated. There were no other vehicles involved, FHP Cpl. Jacquline Stevens, the lead investigator, said Friday.
Knights was not wearing a seat belt, according to a Highway Patrol report.
Officials say motorists can increase their chances of surviving crashes by buckling up.
"We know that seat belts are the best tools that we can use," said Dee Hawkins, Charlotte County Fire & EMS spokeswoman.
Close friends Bare, 24, and Gonzalez, 22, were returning home to the east coast after a Bradenton business trip in March when their truck veered into the Interstate 75 median, flipped and struck a tree. The men, friends since middle school, were not wearing their seat belts. Both died within hours.
"He will be missed by too many people to count," Bare's sister, Jenny Arguinzoni, said in a recent interview.
Accidents are also caused by drivers who are distracted -- answering cell phones, fiddling with the radio or scarfing down a quick lunch. Motorists are encouraged to concentrate on their driving so they can arrive safely at their destinations.
"Know where you're going, plan your route and pay attention," Hawkins advised.