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Neighbors watch car plow into their vehicles and homes

By JODIE TILLMAN
Published February 5, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT [Times photo: Lance Aram Rothstein] Jennifer Hicks and Mark Gillilan hold the bumpers of a Kia that left a path of destruction in Holiday on Sunday. Gillilan said the car missed him by inches as he was working outside, before wrecking his home and causing more damage down the street.

HOLIDAY - Pigeons heralded the dangerous stranger's arrival on Richboro Drive.

"They started squawking," said Mark Gillilan, who was working on the water pipes in his yard, at the corner of Richboro and Moog Road. "I looked up."

Coming toward his home Sunday afternoon was a Kia Optima, clipping the end of a neighbor's parked car, scaring birds from trees and barreling toward him.

"He was literally in the air," said Gillilan. "He was going so fast, I could hardly tell what color the car was."

The car raced into Gillilan's yard and hit a small tree that, luckily, knocked him out of the car's path. The Kia slammed through a patio wall of Gillilan's concrete block home, leaving behind both bumpers but no obvious tire tracks.

The Kia continued into another neighbor's driveway, knocking a car.

Then it plowed toward a home on Palamore Drive, where Bernie Gamache was watching Super Bowl preview coverage.

"I heard this ungodly noise," said Gamache. "Sounded like a tornado."

And then the journey of the stranger ended, with a crash into the Ford Explorer parked in front of Gamache's home.

Emergency personnel took the driver of the Kia, Robert Kroskrity, to Community Hospital, said Trooper Bill Foden of the Florida Highway Patrol.

Foden did not know Kroskrity's age or condition Sunday. He said multiple prescriptions for drugs were found in his car, but said it was unclear whether drugs or alcohol played a role in the accident.

Gamache said he ran to the driver and asked him if he was okay. "He was bouncing around, like a seizure," he said. "He kept blacking in and out."

Hours after the accident, neighbors talked about the sounds of the Kia's journey.

"Every time it hit something, it goes BAM! BAM!" recalled Gillilan. "It's a weird sound. But you'll never forget it."

Even after it stopped, there was another noise: The car's horn would not stop blowing.

Gamache fetched a screwdriver and broke the horn. Finally, the afternoon seemed almost quiet again.

Jodie Tillman can be reached at 727 869-6247 or jtillman@sptimes.com.

[Last modified February 5, 2007, 01:41:36]