Tampa Bay briefs

By Times staff writer

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 3, 2000

TAMPA -- One man died and two people were injured, one of them critically, in a high-speed crash Sunday on Fletcher Avenue near Magdalene Shores Drive. About 5:30 p.m., a man who may have been drag-racing another car lost control of his vehicle and crossed through the center turning lane of Fletcher Avenue and into oncoming traffic, said Sgt. Harold Winsett, a spokesman for the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office. The out-of-control car was met head-on by another one carrying two people. The driver of the speeding car died at the scene, Winsett said. The two people he hit were taken to Tampa General Hospital, where one of them was in critical condition. Winsett said he could not release the identities of anyone involved because next of kin had not been notified. That particular stretch of Fletcher Avenue is frequented by speeders and therefore, dangerous accidents, Winsett said. "People can really get cooking as they come off that curve there," he said. "Two deputies were killed near there a few years ago in a similar accident."

18-year-old hospitalized after watercraft crash

APOLLO BEACH -- An 18-year-old man was airlifted to Tampa General Hospital on Sunday evening after he crashed on a personal watercraft off Beer Can Island at the mouth of Tampa Bay.

Capt. Ray Yeakley of Hillsborough County Fire Rescue said the man suffered serious head injuries, but they weren't thought to be life-threatening. He didn't know how the accident occurred.

After the call for help first came in, a Tampa Fire Rescue boat was dispatched to pick up the man, but a bystander with a boat near the island figured he could get to help more quickly.

The boater took the injured man to Apollo Beach, where a Bayflite helicopter waited to take him to Tampa General Hospital. Yeakley said the man remained in the hospital Sunday night.

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