Dirt bike driver dies when he hits car

By JOHN FRANK, Times Staff Writer
Published September 13, 2007

SPRING HILL - Stephen Lawson liked to take risks. But his last one cost his life.

Arnaldo Mendoza, a friend and former neighbor, said the 16-year-old Spring Hill resident stuck to his motto from a young age. "'You're only going to live once.' He was a young boy saying that," said Mendoza, 22.

Lawson died Tuesday night at Spring Hill Regional Hospital from injuries sustained during a wreck where he ran a red light while driving with no license on his illegal dirt bike, according to Florida Highway Patrol spokesman Larry Coggins.

The accident occurred at 8:54 p.m. at the intersection of Pinehurst Drive and Spring Hill Drive near Piper Road. Lawson, a Central High School dropout, was driving his 2004 Honda 250cc motocross bike north on Pinehurst Drive when he collided broadside at the intersection with a four-door sedan traveling east on Spring Hill Drive.

Lawson and passenger Rapheal Navarro were thrown from the bike.

Jacob Myers, the 17-year-old driver of the 1997 Mercury Mystique Spree, continued east briefly before running off the right shoulder, striking a house, reports said.

Navarro, 22, a Spring Hill resident who recently moved from New York, was in serious condition Wednesday at St. Joseph's Hospital in Tampa. Myers and two passengers, both 17-year-old Spring Hill girls, suffered minor injuries. They were treated at Spring Hill Regional Hospital.

Myers and his passengers said they had the green light, but investigators are looking for witnesses to help verify the events, Coggins said. Myers, a senior lineman on the Nature Coast High School football team, did not want to answer questions, said Jamie Joyner, his football coach.

Investigators are still determining the speed of the bike and the sedan. But Coggins said Lawson and Navarro were not wearing helmets and the bike did not have headlights, taillights or a proper license plate.

Records show Lawson did not have a driver's license. In April 2006, at the age of 15, he received a criminal traffic citation for operating a motor vehicle without a license, according to Hernando County court papers. A month later, he pleaded no contest. County Judge Donald Scaglione withheld adjudication, giving Lawson a $250 fine.

He failed to pay that amount, records show, and his privilege to get a license would have been suspended again Sept. 17.

Lawson's grandmother gave him the bike in May. All his life he wanted a dirt bike or an all-terrain vehicle, his sister, Rhonda Cheek said. She said her brother often drove it around the neighborhood.

"Part of the reason this did happen is because there's no places to ride them in Hernando County," she said.

She said Lawson dreamed of moving to Alaska with his girlfriend when he turned 18.

"He had big dreams," she said.

John Frank can be reached at jfrank@sptimes.com or 754-6114.

[Last modified September 12, 2007, 21:35:38]