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Jeep kills bar patron walking on U.S. 19
By BRADY DENNIS © St. Petersburg Times, published March 8, 2001 HOMOSASSA -- It's a sad story, told again and again. And again. For at least the third time since 1998, a pedestrian was killed on U.S. 19 only minutes after walking out of Jim's Club 19 in Homosassa. This time, it happened Tuesday about 10:45 p.m. This time, the victim was Patricia K. Rose, 36, who had moved here from Middletown, Ohio. This time, the driver who struck the victim was Richard Easter, 41, of Dunnellon. Florida Highway Patrol Sgt. Jim Tobin said Rose had been drinking in the bar with friends when she went to the parking lot. For some unknown reason, she ended up standing in the middle of the northbound lane. "No one really had a good reason for why she was out in the road," Tobin said. "It's just another tragic event over there." Tobin said Easter showed no alcohol in his system and most likely would face no charges. Easter said Wednesday that he had gone with friends to see a play, The Day They Kidnapped the Pope, in Spring Hill. He was headed home, driving his 1994 Jeep on U.S. 19, when he saw a bright light coming from the Jim's Club 19 parking lot. It turned out to be someone holding a flashlight. He glanced at it, and by the time he glanced back to his lane, it was too late. "Within a second I hit her, and I hit her pretty hard," he said. "My heart just panicked. I stopped and went directly over there. I saw a young lady laying there. There was a blond woman and a young man nearby. They said that she was gone; there was nothing I could do." On May 20, 2000, 40-year-old Linda Darlene Cinko of Homosassa left Jim's Club 19 about 9:45 p.m. She walked into the path of a 1998 Pontiac Firebird driven by Edwin Leroy Arnold Jr., 42, of Homosassa. Arnold was not cited. On June 30, 1998, a New Port Richey man suffered the same fate. Robert L. Phillips, 45, was leaving the bar to return to the Bell Villa Motel across the street when he walked into the northbound lane of U.S. 19, paused in the median, then stepped in front of an Oldsmobile heading south. The car knocked Phillips about 100 feet, killing him. Helen Kraft Longo, then 62, of Homosassa, left the scene but later called 911 and said she left only because she was afraid. She was not arrested in connection with the accident. Tuesday's accident seemed eerily similar to the previous two deaths. Tobin said many bar patrons put themselves at danger by crossing U.S. 19 on their way back to the motel across the street. Rose was staying at the Ramada Inn about a mile south. Tobin said nobody knows, maybe never will know, why she stepped onto the much-traveled highway. "In my life, I never thought I would take somebody else's life," Easter said. "I know it was beyond my control, but I still was the cause of her death. I couldn't sleep last night. I've thought about her several times today, and I build up tears. "I'm sure she's got family, and I feel very bad for the loss of their daughter. I'm sorry it happened, sorry I was involved. If you can, tell the family I'm very sorry."
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