Man arrested on DUI, drug charges

Man arrested on DUI, drug charges
after crashing car into shoppers
A Sanibel Island man was arrested Monday after his car
jumped a sidewalk at a south Fort Myers store, injuring
three elderly people.
Curtis Vincent Gates Jr., 39, of the 1500 block of Periwinkle
Way, was charged with driving while under the influence
of alcohol or drugs, producing drugs and three counts of
property damage.
According to Lee County Sheriff's Office reports:
About 3:30 p.m., a 1993 Ford Taurus plowed into a cart on
Gates
injured.
the front sidewalk of Dollar General, 8750
Gladiolus Drive.
"The cart slammed one victim into the
door, breaking the glass, and the other was
thrown through the open door onto the
ground inside the store," the deputy wrote.
A woman was taken to a hospital as a trauma
alert because of low blood pressure. Her
husband was brushed by the car and not
seriously injured. Another man also was
The victims are in their late 80s and from Fort Myers,
according to the report. Their names were not immediately
released.
Gates told witnesses his car's brakes went out as he backed
into a parking spot. Instead of checking on the victims, he
checked the brake fluid. He told a deputy the power steering
unit went out
As deputies spoke to him, he put a white pill in his mouth
and said it was Tylenol, then said: "I mean nothing." The
driver continued to talk to deputies and a small white
chunk fell from his mouth to the ground. It was identified
as Xanax.
He passed out in the patrol car on the way to jail and
again at the jail.
Gates failed field sobriety tests but refused to take a
breath test, saying: "(Expletive) it. I can ride my bike to
work for that."
Naples Daily News
Collier County
April 20,2011

Motorcyclist killed in crash

TAMPA -A 25-year-old man was killed when he wrecked a motorcycle early Thursday morning.

The man, whose name has not been released, was traveling north at high speed on Nebraska Avenue about 2 a.m., according to the Tampa Police Department. At East Yukon Street, he crashed into the back of a pickup, authorities said.

Emergency crews took him to Tampa General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Police look at traffic collision, crash was in neighborhood

A 23-year-old man died Tuesday when the car in which he was a passenger smashed into a truck at high speed on a residential street in Palm Bay.

Police said Robert Alexander Williams died at the scene where a Chevrolet Impala ran into a Silverado as the truck was being backed out of a residential driveway in the 1300 block of Jupiter Boulevard.

The deadly two-vehicle crash happened about 2:30 a.m.

"The Impala was going about 100 mph before It crashed," said Yvonne Martinez, spokeswoman for the Palm Bay Police Department.

The driver of the Impala identified as Scott Bradford Williams, 22 -was airlifted to Holmes Regional Medical Center. Police said the driver was not related to the victim. Two other crash victims­ Adam Beyer, the 19-year-old driver of the truck, and 18-year-old Katlynn Stone­ were taken by ambulance to a hospital.

Patrol officers along with paramedics from Palm Bay Fire-Rescue tended to the four injured people at the site.

An investigation is ongoing.

Florida Today Brevard County Daily 72,650

April 7, 2011

"Woman cited with careless driving in three-car wreck"

NAVARRE — A Cantonment woman was cited for careless driving after running into the rear of a car, which then struck the vehicle in front of it.
Vera Daniel, 55, was seriously injured in the 10 a.m. wreck Tuesday morning, according to the Florida Highway Patrol media release.
She was heading east on U.S. Highway 98 when she ran into a Hyundai 2007 van waiting at the intersection of Coral Street. The van was propelled forward by the impact and struck a 2001 Volvo driven by a Fort Walton Beach woman.
Daniel's passenger, Iliones Mota, had minor injuries.The occupants of the van, Vincenzo and Loredana Bassolino of Navarre, were not seriously injured. Elaine Bustamante of Fort Walton Beach, who was in the Volvo, was not injured.
Everyone was wearing a seat belt. Alcohol is not believed to be a factor.


for more information please visit: http://www.nwfdailynews.com/articles/woman-38427-careless-cited.html

A 41-year-old man who was thrown from his motorcycle in Collier County Thursday is now facing charges

Wesley Eversole, of Naples, is charged with driving without motorcycle registration, failure to exhibit a license, and careless driving.

State troopers say Eversole lost control of the motorcycle shortly before 3 a.m. near the intersection of Vanderbilt Beach Road and US-41.

According to the Florida Highway Patrol, the motorcycle hit a median, throwing Eversole onto the road and injuring his passenger, 22-year-old Brooke Seckler.

Both were taken to North Naples Hospital with minor injuries.

State troopers say they were not wearing helmets.

For more information please visit: http://www.abc-7.com/Global/story.asp?S=12200878

If you've been involved in a motorcycle accident please call our office 24/7 for a free case evaluation. 1-866-LAW-FRAN - for more information please visit www.lawfran.com

A 72-year-old woman driving a pickup truck lost control Monday and crashed into a bus stop shelter, injuring a University of South Florida student

Police say Joy Conley, 22, of Ft. Lauderdale, was waiting at a HART bus shelter, N Himes Avenue and W Columbus Drive, when a 2001 Ford Ranger plowed into her.

Conley was taken to St. Joseph's Hospital with serious, non-life threatening injuries, Tampa police spokeswoman Darla Portman said.

The crash happened at 12:34 p.m. as Mirta D. Gonzalez, of 3011 W Cherry St., was traveling west on Columbus and was making a right onto Himes when police say she lost control of her vehicle and slammed into Conley.

D. Gonzalez was cited with careless driving.

For more information please visit: http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/accidents/police-usf-student-at-bus-stop-injured-by-72-year-old-woman-driver/1030387

Texting While Driving Getting National Attention

Text messaging while driving has become a daily distraction for a generation of drivers hooked on instant communication...and a menace to others on the road.

Last year, heather Hurd, 26, and Stephanie Phills, 37, died when a truck driver, reaching for his hand-held device to text hist office, rammed into traffic at a stoplight on U.S. 27 in Central Florida, causing a 10-car pileup, police said. The driver was cited for careless driving, a noncriminal offense that carries a $500 fine.

In may, a truant Tampa, Fla., high school student slammed into a patrol car while texting. She caused $3,000 in damage but no injuries.

In New York, texting is considered the likely cause of a crash that killed five cheerleaders last year. And in April, a California woman was sentenced to six years in prison for killing a woman in a car accident...caused by texting while driving.

This reckless behavior, is by no means, an isolated problem.

In a previously unreleased report, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration revealed last month that in 2002 there were 955 deaths and 240,000 crashes attributable to drivers using cellphones - either texting or talking. That was before texting became a true phenomenon.

This past week, the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute reported that texting while driving is 23 times more dangerous than driving fully alert.

There are 14 states that make it illegal to send a text message while driving, but Florida isn't one of them. State Rep. Doug Holder of Sarasota filed a bill recently to make it illegal to read or type on any mobile device while behind the wheel in Florida.

For a more detailed look please visit: http://www.philly.com/philly/business/technology/080409_texting_while_driving.html

If you've been injured in an automobile accident please call our office 24/7 for a free case evaluation- 1-866-LAW-FRAN. For more information please visit http://www.lawfran.com