Motorists who witnessed an SUV hitting a motorcyclist on I-95 chased down the SUV and held the driver until police arrived, Florida Highway Patrol troopers said.
BY JOE CAVARETTA
Sun Sentinel
An SUV driver who, troopers say, tried to flee after striking a motorcyclist on Interstate 95 in South
Broward early Sunday was chased for almost five miles, wrestled to the ground and held for the authorities by a Dania Beach man. "I ride a motorcycle,'' said John Roxey, 61, "and I wasn't going to let
him get away." Corey Rogers Seltenright, 30, of Fort L1uderdale. was arrested and charged with careless
driving, driving under the influence with serious bodily injury and property damage, and leaving the scene of a crash with injuries, according to Sgt. Mark Wysocky of the Florida Highway Patrol.
The driver of the motorcycle hit by the SUV, Ytzhak Hartzy, 42, of Aventura, was in critical but stable condition Sunday at Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood, FHP said. Hartzy was not wearing a helmet. Several northbound lanes of l-95 were closed for a few hours after the 8:30 a.m. crash.
Roxey said he was driving his car onto northbound I-95 from Hallandale Beach Boulevard when an SUV cut him off. Just north of the ramp, he said, the SUV hit the motorcyclist. "The motorcyclist went up in the air and then he rolled down the highway a few hundred feet," said Roxey.
He gave chase with another witness, an active-duty Army serviceman in a pickup truck on his way to
Fort Bragg, N.C. The second man did not wish to talk, and FHP didn't release his name.
The SUV, a black Kia Sorrento driven by Seltenright, continued to the Sheridan Street exit, its airbags deployed and its front right headlight dangling from the crumpled fender.
Roxey's Hyundai Accent and the second man's pickup boxed the Sorrento into the left-turn lane at Oakwood Boulevard, just east of I-95 in Hollywood.
"I yanked him out of me car and I put a headlock on him and held him on the concrete:· Roxey said.
"His partner came around to try to help him, and I kicked him and he ran away. I just held the guy until the
cops came," he said.
"The adrenaline just rushed in." The passenger, Alfredo Gracian-Silva, 41, of Lauderdale- by- th e -Sea, was not charged. "We've all had close calls - this is South Florida. Too many people don't stop,"
Roxey said.
"I'm just overwhelmed. I'm glad I got him." Asked whether people should be encouraged to do what Roxey did, Wysocky cautioned against it. "You really don't want to confront someone in a case
like this," he said. "You never know what they have in the car. But they also called 911 and me city of
Hollywood police arrived on the scene."
Miami Herald
Miami Dade County
May 16, 2011
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