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Crash leaves 1 dead, 5 in hospital with injuries

By REBECCA CATALANELLO
Published May 20, 2006

TAMPA - Two families were thrown into crisis Friday after an automobile crash left one man dead and five people hospitalized.

Donald Vincent of 2709 E Okara Road in Tampa was on his way to breakfast with his church friends when his 2001 Chevrolet van collided with a 1996 Ford Explorer carrying a Wesley Chapel family of five, Hillsborough sheriff's deputies said.

Vincent, 65, died at the scene on N Florida Avenue just south of W Fletcher Avenue. Minister Tom Roberts of Forest Hills Church of Christ said Vincent was a regular member of the congregation's weekly "breakfast club," which was meeting Friday at Bob Evans on N Dale Mabry.

"Donald was just as good as can be," Roberts said. "We'll miss him a great deal."

Meanwhile, the Wesley Chapel family - two women and three children - who were traveling south on Florida Avenue we were all transported to St. Joseph's Hospital.

Eugliesky Acurero, 34, and her daughter, Euglimar Mendoza, 9, were each in critical condition Friday afternoon.

Her husband, Wilfredo Ortiz, 36, of 7007 Belt Link Loop in Wesley Chapel, learned his wife and two children were in the accident when he received a call on his way to work.

"It's nothing that I wish for anybody," he said of the feeling he had at that moment.

Ortiz spent the rest of the day at the hospital sitting next to his 5-year-old son, Jose Carlos, who had a scraped-up chin and a left arm wrapped in bandages.

Jose was too scared to let his father leave his side.

Acurero's sister-in-law, Belkis Linardo, 32, was driving her Ford Explorer at the time of the crash about 7 a.m. Friday morning.

Linardo and her sister-in-law work together and live on the same street in Wesley Chapel. Friday morning, they were bringing their children to school at Twin Lakes Elementary School in North Tampa.

After being treated and released, Linardo sat with her 5-year-old son, Andrew Acurero, in the hospital.

[Last modified May 20, 2006, 07:15:16]