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Man charged in fatal crash

Police say a Safety Harbor man kept going after he caused a deadly accident on Interstate 75 early today.

By SHANNON COLAVECCHIO-VAN SICKLER
Published December 21, 2005

TAMPA - Investigators say 40-year-old Robert P. Bischoff called the Florida Highway Patrol Wednesday morning to report that he had been involved in a crash.

But that was an hour after Bischoff clipped a 1990 Ford Tempo on Interstate 75 in Brandon, setting off a violent collision that instantly killed the Tempo's 25-year-old driver, said FHP spokesman Trooper Larry Coggins.

Authorities arrested Bischoff late Wednesday morning in southern Hillsborough, where he works, and charged him with vehicular homicide and leaving the scene of a deadly crash.

"A number of witnesses told us of an erratic driving pattern prior to the crash," Coggins said. "He was just very reckless."

Bischoff of Safety Harbor was driving a 2003 Dodge van south on I-75 north of State Road 60 at 7 a.m. when he sideswiped the driver's side of the southbound Tempo driven by Brian M. Mydelski of Bushnell, according to FHP investigators. The impact sent the Tempo spinning across the median and into northbound traffic.

A 2005 Mack semi-tractor trailer slammed into the passenger's side of the Tempo, ejecting Mydelski, who was not wearing a seat belt, and totalling the mid-sized car, Coggins said. Mydelski's body landed in the northbound lanes.

The Mack truck spun into a guardrail on the east shoulder of the highway and slid down an embankment between northbound I-75 and the entrance ramp from S.R. 60. The driver, 53-year-old Johnny R. Horton of Bradenton, was flown to Tampa General Hospital.

Bischoff never stopped, Coggins said, prompting some horrified witnesses to follow him in their vehicles as they alerted authorities from their cell phones.

Coggins said it is unclear whether Bischoff intentionally hit the Tempo, but troopers do not suspect alcohol was involved.

According to state criminal records, Bischoff has a lengthy history of arrests dating back to the early 80s.

Troopers closed all but one northbound lane for three hours while they investigated. Once the lanes reopened, the entrance ramp from westbound S.R. 60 onto northbound I-75 was shut down while workers removed the Mack truck from the embankment.

[Last modified December 21, 2005, 16:27:23]