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Couple die during erratic drive

Witnesses say their car zigzagged past vehicles on a Clearwater artery before hitting a truck, pole and tree.

By YUXING ZHENG
Published September 28, 2005

CLEARWATER - A Clearwater couple died Tuesday afternoon after their car struck a truck, knocked a utility pole to the ground and crashed into a tree, witnesses said.

The car's driver, Richard R. Mott, 77, died at the scene of the crash, which occurred about 4:45 p.m. at Cleveland Street and Mars Avenue, said Wayne Shelor, a spokesman for the Clearwater Police Department.

Mott's wife, Mary A. Mott, 76, was in the car. She was taken to Bayfront Medical Center, where she died.

Shelor said the Motts' maroon 1999 Lincoln Town Car was speeding east on two-lane Cleveland, zigzagging past several cars. At times, witnesses said, the car drove onto the curb to get around other cars.

Near Cleveland and Mars, the car clipped the back of a light blue Mazda truck, also headed east, before hitting and upending the utility pole at the southeast corner of Cleveland and Mars. The car finally stopped after crashing into the tree on the south side of Cleveland.

Parts of the Town Car littered the front lawn and driveway of a nearby house. The driver's side door had been detached and ended up on the sidewalk. The hood of was mangled. Power lines from the downed utility pole were twisted around the branches of a nearby tree.

Police blocked off Cleveland between Saturn Avenue and Keene Road for several hours Tuesday.

Motorcyclist Larry Pflueger, 61, said the car sped past him on his right a few blocks before the accident. He saw the car approaching and jerked left to avoid it. The car cut Pflueger off before passing the vehicle in front of him and zigzagging past three or four other vehicles, he said.

"It was so close I could feel the wind when he went by," Pflueger said. "When he hit the truck, that turned him sideways. He knocked over the pole, knocked down the power lines and hit the tree."

Pflueger estimated that Mott was going at least 60 mph in the 35 mph zone.

Carolyn Nikel, 64, and Sonia Rees, 66, had crossed the intersection on foot minutes before the accident. They heard the crash as they walked into the garage of their hous e at the southwest corner of the intersection.

"It was a thunderous bang," said Nikel, as she gazed at remnants of the car a hundred feet from her driveway.

Both said vehicles often zoom by their house. Whenever the two hear brakes squeal, they cringe and wait for a crash, Rees said.

But on Tuesday, the two heard no brakes, only the sound of the car as it crashed into the tree, tearing off a portion of its bark. No tire marks were visible at the site of the crash.

[Last modified September 28, 2005, 02:30:38]