Tampabay: Crash kills driver, passenger

CLEARWATER -- A series of bad decisions landed Jenanne Johnson and her boyfriend in a terrifying spot early Tuesday. They sat in the back of a red Pontiac Grand Am driven by a 16-year-old boy who liked fast cars.

The boy, who had been drinking, took off after a white Jeep Cherokee that he thought cut him off. He took corners on two wheels, pumping the car up to 60 mph in 35 mph residential zones.

Johnson saw the oak tree before they hit it.

"All I remember is looking at the tree and the next thing I know I was trying to climb out of the car and blood was coming down my face," Johnson said Tuesday from her hospital bed.

The driver, Dane Delaine Scarborough, and a front-seat passenger, Christine Adamson, 23, were killed in the crash on Cleveland Street.

Johnson and her boyfriend, Vito Knighton, both 23, were taken by helicopter to Bayfront Medical Center. She was in fair condition Tuesday evening with soreness in her legs, shoulder and neck. He was in serious condition with a broken leg.

Johnson said the crash proves reckless driving can be deadly.

"I felt like something was going to go wrong," she said. "It was in a blink of an eye that we were wrapped around a tree."

Neighbors said the crash sounded like an explosion. "I thought maybe the house blew up next door," said neighbor Dee Findlay, 65.

When Findlay came to the car, all she heard was "a sweet voice . . . saying, "Please help me.' "

That was Johnson, who was watching Scarborough slipping away.

"He was dying in front of me," she said.

Johnson was pinned in the car for nearly an hour. Thirty firefighters struggled to free her and her friends. Four rescuers suffered heat exhaustion.

The night began hours earlier as Johnson fixed a dinner of macaroni and cheese, baked chicken and pork chops for Knighton and Adamson.

Adamson and Johnson attended college together in Indianapolis and moved to Florida this summer. They lived at Newport Apartments, a complex at 10802 W Hillsborough Ave. in Tampa. Knighton, a student at Central State University in Ohio, recently came to visit.

Scarborough was living in the apartment complex when Adamson and Johnson moved in. Scarborough was immediately taken with Adamson, his friends said.

His mother, Elaine Scarborough, thinks something other than Adamson's pretty face appealed to her son.

"She had a car. That's what he wanted," said Ms. Scarborough, 43.

Scarborough was always fascinated by cars and speed, said his mother, who kept the spare key to her Mitsubishi locked in a drawer at work.

"He always wanted to see how fast a car could go," she said.

The family moved from Brooklyn, N.Y., two years ago. Scarborough finished eighth grade in Brooklyn but did not go to school locally.

Soon, he was spending day and night at Adamson's, constantly wiping down her Grand Am. He would tell his mother that he wasn't driving. Monday night it was the same story.

Scarborough offered to show Johnson and Knighton the sights of Tampa Bay. Before they left, Scarborough's mother remembered, she told her son: "Please don't drive."

"I won't," he promised.

But Scarborough broke his promise, Johnson said. He drove to a liquor store. They bought champagne and vodka, which they mixed with orange juice and drank, Johnson said.

Scarborough headed toward Clearwater Beach. He was on Gulf-to-Bay Boulevard heading west when a white Jeep pulled into his lane, Johnson and police said.

Scarborough, with Adamson urging him on, chased the Jeep, Johnson said. The Jeep was driven by Clearwater resident Tiffany Markham, 20, who is three months pregnant.

Markham turned right in the area of Mercury Street and tried to get away. But Scarborough followed. "She went down the side streets trying to lose them, but they kept chasing her," said Donna Markham, Tiffany Markham's mother.

Scarborough and Adamson yelled obscenities at Markham, Johnson said. "I kept telling him to drop us off on the side of the street and we would take a cab home," she said.

Finally Scarborough decided to let it go. But he floored it when he thought someone was following them, then turned onto Cleveland Street, at one time going west in the eastbound lane, police and Johnson said.

Seconds later, they hit the tree broadside. The impact crushed the driver's side of the Grand Am, pushing in the metal 3 feet.

Officers later found Markham, who did not see the crash, police said.

"We feel sorry for the families of the victims," said Donna Markham. "It very upsetting for the whole family. It's really sad."

Johnson said it all could have been avoided.

"Never get so mad in a car that you're not thinking. Pull to the side of the road, do something," she said. "Because you might kill another person."

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