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Suspected drag race kills two

The aftermath of the accident forced authorities to close all northbound and some southbound lanes of U.S. 19 for several hours.

By TAMARA EL-KHOURY
Published August 1, 2006

	[Times photo: Jim Damaske]
	The morning accident shut down U.S. 19 just below Alderman Road. Traffic updates

PALM HARBOR - A suspected race on U.S. 19 Tuesday morning killed two men and injured two other people, one critically, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.

Troopers identified one of the dead as David Smithers, 33, of New Port Richey. The other, an 18-year-old man from Tampa, was not being named until his family was notified.

A third man, Dalton A. Stoltz, 18, of Tampa, was in Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg in critical condition, authorities said.

The wreck took place about 10 a.m. Tuesday just south of Alderman Road.

A Honda CRX driven by Stoltz and an Isuzu Rodeo driven by Smithers were going north on U.S. 19 at a high rate of speed when a southbound Ford pickup truck made a U-turn to go north, Trooper Larry Coggins said.

As the pickup truck made the turn, Stoltz swerved to the left to avoid it, Coggins said. His Honda hit the pickup truck, then the Isuzu, causing the Isuzu to tumble along U.S. 19, ejecting Smithers.

Smithers was flown to Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg, where he died, authorities said.

The passenger of the Honda died at the scene, and Stoltz was flown to Bayfront Medical Center with life-threatening injuries, authorities said.

The passenger of the Rodeo, 27-year-old Candie Means of New Port Richey, was taken by ambulance to St. Joseph's Hospital in Tampa, where authorities said she was in serious condition but did not have life-threatening injuries. She was the only person in the wreck wearing a seat belt.

The driver of the Ford pickup, 24-year-old Dominic Motta of Weekie Wachee, was uninjured.

An investigation is continuing.

Coggins wouldn't confirm that the two cars were racing until an investigation is complete. However he did say witnesses said the cars were racing. There is no indication that the occupants of the two cars knew each other, he said.

Many car races are spontaneous, the result of a glance and a nod at a red light, Coggins said.

Debris from the accident - car parts, books, a child's sneaker, a baby bottle - stretched for more than 100 yards on U.S. 19. The debris was still airborne when Michael Giguere and Jim Frink, employees at Just Brakes, ran out of their shop toward the wreck.

They heard the bang from the crash despite the noise they were making in the garage, Giguere said. People came out of nearby stores and started dialing 911 on their cell phones, he said.

Frink said Smithers, the ejected driver of the Isuzu, was lying in a puddle of blood. His breathing was labored and garbled, Frink said. A man who identified himself as a nurse wrapped a blanket that was found in the debris, around Smithers' head, Frink said. The nurse lay the driver on his side.

Means, the female passenger of the Isuzu, stumbled out of the car on her own, Frink said and sat on a curb by a pole. Someone yelled out that there was a car seat in the car.

Frink said he went over to the female passenger and asked if there were any kids in the car. She said no. He asked again.

"Are you sure?"

She said she was sure.

Frink said she was speaking on her cell phone to her father and told him she didn't know what happened.

Strangers stood on the sidewalks, asking each other if they had ever seen anything comparable to the devastation in front of them.

"Do you know what it was even?" said Anne Beesley staring at the twisted metal shell that was once the Honda.

"This ... is going to change my life," Giguere said. "I swear to God, I'm never going to speed again."

[Last modified August 1, 2006, 18:53:50]