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Published on Tuesday, December 3, 2002
in the Bradenton Herald
MANATEE - Holiday traffic deaths might exceed the numbers predicted by state officials, with Manatee County contributing at least three to the state's total of 40.
Florida Highway Patrol officials predicted 40 fatalities between 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 27, and midnight Sunday, Dec. 1, and have exactly that unless lingering injuries from crashes within that period result in death.
"It was a deadly holiday," said Chief Ken Howes of the Florida Highway Patrol in Tallahassee.
The first of three deadly collisions in Manatee County came at about 5 p.m. Wednesday when a Riverview man died after another car ran a red light and struck his car. Michael Carico, 39, was flown to Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg where he died from the injuries received in a collision at 301 Boulevard and Third Street West, according to FHP reports.
The second death came about an hour later when an unidentified British man driving a rental car hit another car head-on near the Sunshine Skyway bridge. The rental car was travelling south in the northbound lanes and struck a Corvette at about 90 miles an hour, troopers said. The crash occurred about a mile south of the tollbooth at the south end of the bridge.
The third fatality occurred when an East Manatee firefighter allegedly struck and killed a 49-year-old man with his pickup as the man walked along Morgan Johnson Road early Thursday. Investigators said Robert Briesacher, 30, left William Mathers lying in a ditch near the 1200 block of Morgan Johnson Road. Troopers arrested Briesacher a few hours later on a charge of leaving the scene of a fatal accident.
In Sarasota County, there were two deaths from one accident with one serious injury. Isydro Arranda and Javien Alberto Tiscareno were killed when the vehicle they were in veered off of northbound U.S. 301 and struck a tree. Another passenger, Zeferino Hernandez, 30, was flown by helicopter to Bayfront Medical Center and is in critical condition.
BY THE NUMBERS
• Forty deaths occurred in 35 separate traffic crashes.
• Thirty-two fatalities occurred during the hours of darkness.
• Seven of the fatal traffic crashes were known to be alcohol-related; 18 remain listed as unknown; with 10 presently classified as not alcohol-related.
• Of the 40 deaths, seven were pedestrians and three were motorcyclists.
• One of the 35 fatal traffic crashes occurred during inclement weather.
• Out of the 30 fatalities having seat belts available, eight were known to be wearing seat belts.
• Of the 35 fatal traffic crashes, 32 were investigated by the Florida Highway Patrol.
• Of the 35 fatal traffic crashes, 12 occurred in urban areas; with the remaining 23 occurring in rural areas.
SOURCE: Florida Highway Patrol