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Crash leaves 1 dead, 1 injured

An SUV driver dies when she veers into oncoming traffic and hits two vehicles. One of those drivers is in critical condition.

By ROBIN STEIN
Published July 14, 2006

TARPON SPRINGS - A fiery multivehicle crash on U.S. 19 left one young woman dead and a second in critical condition, and shut down the highway for several hours Tuesday night.

Merissa Laren Wing, 21, of Palm Harbor died after apparently losing control of her 2003 white Isuzu sport utility vehicle just north of Live Oak Street, according to Tarpon Springs police.

Wing was driving south at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday when she swerved from the far right lane, across the other southbound lanes, drove over the median and struck two oncoming vehicles, police said.

Wing was not wearing a seat belt and was thrown from the SUV before it burst into flames, police said. She died at the scene.

A 26-year-old woman from Holiday was driving one of the vehicles Wing struck, a silver Nissan SUV. The woman, whose name was being withheld because police had not reached her family, was flown to Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg, where she remained in critical condition Wednesday.

Only the driver of the third car, a blue Volvo sedan, escaped relatively unscathed. Police said Matthew W. Sabia, 24, of New Port Richey was treated at the scene and released.

Emergency crews were on the scene until after midnight, diverting streams of cars heading north and south onto crowded side streets.

"Traffic was pretty much at a standstill for a couple hours with people trying to filter down to one lane," said Tarpon Springs police Capt. Jeffrey P. Young.

Young said the backup was further snarled by a second minor accident along the detour, at Alt. U.S. 19 and Old Dixie Highway.

The police investigation was ongoing and Wing's relatives could not be reached Wednesday.

[Last modified July 13, 2006, 22:29:26]