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Victims' deaths quick, violent
Many in the traffic accidents suffered blunt force trauma.
By Abbie Vansickle
Published February 13, 2007
TAMPA - A day after four traffic crashes claimed nine lives in the bay area, the early findings of medical examiners pointed to swift and violent endings. In the Hillsborough County crashes, one man died of a skull fracture and brain laceration; another, of blunt impact to the head and torso; and a third, of heart lacerations, the Medical Examiner's Office reported. One woman died of brain stem and heart lacerations; another, of cuts to her spinal cord, heart and aorta; a third, of aortic laceration; and a fourth, of a snapped neck. An 18-month-old baby, though properly restrained in the rear of a vehicle, died of head injuries. Survivors of the crashes all wore seat belts, but not all who wore seat belts survived. In the worst, a head-on collision that killed five people on U.S. 301, damage to a Chrysler Sebring was so extensive that authorities could not immediately determine which occupants wore restraints. They said pickup driver Danny S. Lamb Jr., who crashed into the Sebring while passing vehicles early Sunday, wore a seat belt but died anyway. The clear lesson for drivers is that people need to pay more attention to the road, said Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Larry Coggins. In a later crash Sunday morning on Gibsonton Drive, one driver appeared to be racing another before he struck a couple in a vehicle making a U-turn, sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter said. An 83-year-old Riverview woman died, and Roger Yeager, 37, of Gibsonton, faces several charges, including vehicular homicide. Investigators are seeking the driver of the other racing vehicle, a white male with brown hair in a black two-door Honda with tinted windows, aftermarket wheels and a loud exhaust system. The other crash deaths Sunday included a 17-year-old mother and her baby, passengers in a car that rolled over on Interstate 75, and a motorcyclist killed in Inverness. Staff writers Abbie VanSickle and Michael Mohammed contributed to this report.
[Last modified February 13, 2007, 00:08:39]
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