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21 killed in holiday wrecks, the FHP says
By Times staff and wire reports
© St. Petersburg Times, published January 3, 2001
TALLAHASSEE -- The New Year's holiday weekend claimed at least 21 lives in car crashes around the state, the Florida Highway Patrol said Tuesday.
The deaths occurred in 16 separate crashes, including a head-on collision on the Florida Turnpike in Miami-Dade County that killed three people Monday night, the worst crash of the weekend.
Seven of the 16 people who died in cars weren't wearing seat belts.
Five of the victims were pedestrians, including two people killed when they stepped into the path of a pickup truck in Pensacola on Friday night.
Seven of the crashes were in cities or suburban areas and nine in rural areas, with the most deaths in Miami-Dade and Orange counties.
Three of the crashes were known to be alcohol-related, three were classified as not alcohol-related and nine remained under investigation Tuesday.
Of the 21 deaths statewide, two occurred in the Tampa Bay area: one in Pinellas County, one in Hillsborough, and one in Manatee, officials said.
The statewide death toll was up from last year's New Year's weekend, when 17 people died in crashes.
But it was lower than two years ago, when 29 people died in crashes over the holiday period.
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