|
Home Search |
Published on Thursday, July 25, 2002
in the Sun-Sentinel
WEST BOCA · Investigators have found a tow truck driver who could be held partly responsible for a crash on Florida's Turnpike that killed a woman and her two children, officials said Wednesday.
Florida Highway Patrol investigators have pieced together the events that preceded Tuesday's wreck involving a semitrailer truck and a Mazda, and they think a tow truck driver stopped northbound traffic as he attempted to tow a disabled flatbed truck, said Highway Patrol spokesman Lt. Pat Santangelo.
Killed in the crash were Renee Woss, 31, her son Ramon T. Paez, 12, and her daughter Andrea Brunner, 5. Woss was driving the Mazda and had stopped on the turnpike west of Boca Raton when a semitrailer truck driven by Diosvany Fundora of West Palm Beach plowed into the car about 2:15 p.m.
Fundora, 27, had just driven over a crest in the roadway and tried to brake but could not stop in time to avoid hitting the Mazda, officials said. Fundora was in fair condition Wednesday at Delray Medical Center.
About six hours before the crash, the rear axle of a flatbed truck carrying roofing tiles had broken, stalling it in the center lane near the site of the accident north of Glades Road, Santangelo said. The flatbed truck was towed to the shoulder by a towing company that a trooper requested, but the truck was left on the shoulder because the Hialeah-based company that owned it wanted to use its own towing service.
About 1:30 p.m., a witness told investigators, a south-facing tow truck was hooking up the damaged flatbed on the northbound shoulder, Santangelo said. Investigators think the tow truck used the roadway to turn around, stopping traffic.
Santangelo said it's against the law to impede traffic, and tow-truck drivers must contact the Highway Patrol if lanes are to be blocked. He did not release the name of the flatbed truck's owner, the towing company or the its driver.
Authorities still want to know why Fundora could not stop in time.
Investigators from the state Department of Transportation will inspect the truck this morning to determine whether mechanical problems contributed to the crash.
State records show Fundora has been cited seven times for speeding since 1992 and once for careless driving in 1998.