Truck driver's family mourns, awaits word

Man was on I-4 during mayhem.

By THOMAS LAKE, Times Staff Writer
Published January 12, 2008

ADVERTISEMENT Michael Fricke Jr., 34, was driving a box truck on Interstate 4 early Wednesday morning. [Handout photo]

TAMPA - For those who knew and loved him, the memory of Michael Fricke Jr. - husband, father, deliverer of fine beverages - is permanently housed in the following places:

The taste of chicken with yellow rice. The glorious wail of Metallica. The regal bearing of a wolf. The warmth of a hug enclosed by big shoulders.

Fricke, 34, was driving a box truck bound for Cocoa Beach early Wednesday morning when fog and smoke enveloped Interstate 4 and caused a huge crash that killed four people and damaged or destroyed about 70 vehicles.

As officialdom pondered the causes, as lawyers emerged and blame spread, as medical examiners sought to identify bodies, Fricke's family gathered Friday night to grieve in Tampa's Clair-Mel City area. No one had told them for certain what became of Fricke, but they had reached their own conclusions.

"He died in the crash," his wife, Wendy, said. "If he didn't, he'd be here with his three kids."

Now for the memories.

Chicken with yellow rice was his favorite food, although he would eat almost anything.

Said his 13-year-old son, Stephen: "They only thing he probably wouldn't eat was -"

"- Liver," said his sister-in-law Kristen Eckert."

"Yeah," Stephen said. "No liver."

Metallica was his favorite rock band. He called himself a redneck metalhead. He especially loved the songs One and Nothing Else Matters.

Wolves seemed to be his favorite animals. No one could say exactly why. But he collected them in figurines, posters, clocks and screen savers. Wendy yelled at him after he went to the Blue Devil in Ybor City and had a wolf tattooed on his arm.

"It didn't even look like a wolf," she said. "It looked like a rat."

Hugs were something he gave out liberally. He had the biggest shoulders in the family. He gave very good hugs.

Fricke drove for Premier Beverage Co. He graduated from Brandon High School in 1993, where he played the trumpet. He was an usher for Palm River Baptist Church, and he wore imitation snakeskin boots to church every Sunday.

"I never heard him cuss," said his father, Michael Fricke Sr.

He played spades and sang Beastie Boys and jumped out of closets to startle his children. When Premier Beverage had a safe-driving contest involving parking, backing and negotiating a slalom course, Fricke finished second out of nearly 30 drivers.

Around 4:30 Wednesday morning, Kenny Parks, another driver for Premier, was heading up Interstate 4 when he hit the wall of smoke.

"I could barely breathe in it," he said.

Parks slowed to 50 mph and got through safely.

Michael Fricke Jr. was about half an hour behind him.

Thomas Lake can be reached at tlake@sptimes.com or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 3416.

[Last modified January 12, 2008, 01:47:11]