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Around Tampa Bay

Briefs and news of note.

By TIMES STAFF
Published January 12, 2007

MAN KILLED IN TWO-CAR CRASH ON BUSCH BLVD.

A 23-year-old Temple Terrace man was killed in a two-car collision at Busch Boulevard and Beverly Drive Wednesday night, police said.

Larry Daniel Garcia of 9463 Forest Hills Place was driving west on Busch at 8:51 p.m. in a 2003 Honda Accord and collided with a 2005 Ford Thunderbird driven by Kenneth E. Tozier, 57, of 212 S Burlingame Ave., police spokesman Michael Dunn said.

The collision pushed Garcia's car against a curb, sending it into the air and into a retaining wall in front of the Publix at Beverly Drive, Dunn said. Garcia died at the scene.

The cause of the crash is under investigation.

Motorcyclist dies in collision with truck

A Seffner motorcyclist died Thursday after a tow truck turned into his path.

John B. Bridges, 62, of 206 S Taylor Road, was not wearing a helmet when his 2003 Honda motorcycle crashed into the side of the truck, the Florida Highway Patrol said.

The accident happened about 1:40 p.m. at State Road 60 and U.S. 301 in front of Courtesy Toyota.

Truck driver Christopher J. Kreamer, 38, of 1513 Hillside Drive in Tampa, was going east on SR 60 when he turned left into the car dealership and into the path of the motorcycle, which was westbound on SR 60, the Highway Patrol said. Bridges died at the scene.

The accident was still under investigation Thursday evening, according to an patrol report.

ST. PETERSBURG

Man sentenced to 7 years for hit-run

A man was sentenced to seven years in prison Wednesday for leaving the scene of a crash last January in which two people were killed.

St. Petersburg resident Alvie Edwards, 49, pleaded no contest to a charge of leaving the scene of a fatal accident.

On Jan. 25, Edwards was driving a 1992 Cadillac when he rear-ended a Mercury driven by Sarah Bellamy, 67, whose car then struck a Mazda driven by Larry Whitfield, a 51-year-old church deacon heading to Bible study. Both Bellamy and Whitfield were killed.

Edwards left the scene and tried to get his car repaired at a local shop, but someone tipped off police that it was there.

When police confronted him, days after the crash, Edwards told officers he was remorseful and had planned to turn himself in.

Edwards, who knew the victim Bellamy, told police he didn't know anyone died in the crash until he heard about it in news reports a few days later.

[Last modified January 12, 2007, 05:46:02]