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3 dead in U.S. 19 collision
By MATTHEW WAITE © St. Petersburg Times, published August 21, 2000 PORT RICHEY -- Milisa Posey remembers driving on U.S. 19 after having dinner at a Mexican restaurant with family and friends Saturday night. They all were going to Wal-Mart, she remembers, to buy a gift for her niece's first birthday. She can remember the people in the car -- her 2-year-old daughter, the girl's father, her cousin and his girlfriend -- and the stereo playing loud in her 1978 Buick Regal. But after a moment in time that she cannot remember, Posey saw paramedics and felt pain throughout her body. Two of her friends were dead, and another was being flown to Tampa in an unsuccessful attempt to save his life. "I really don't remember it," she said Sunday afternoon from her bed at Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg. In that blank in Posey's memory was a chain-reaction, four-car crash that killed three people, injured six others and closed U.S. 19 for 31/2 hours. It happened at 9:59 p.m. Saturday, when a black 1989 Honda Prelude hit Posey's Regal on the passenger side at U.S. 19 and Ridge Road in west Pasco County, said Port Richey police Officer Abe Carmack. After the collision, the Regal spun away, striking a red Mitsubishi pickup driven by Michael Chester, 31, of New Port Richey. Chester's truck then careened into a 1999 Ford Expedition, driven by Kevin Citarella of Spring Hill. The cars all ended up in the southbound lanes of U.S. 19. Posey's cousin, Douglas E. Allen, 30, of Holiday, was pronounced dead on arrival at St. Joseph's Hospital in Tampa. His girlfriend, Megan Basinger, 24, of Holiday, was pronounced dead at the scene. Posey said the other passenger was Feliciano Castillo. Police said he was also pronounced dead at the scene. Riding in the Prelude were three teenagers, Carmack said. He would not identify them because of their ages. He said two of them were taken by medical helicopter to hospitals; another was taken by ambulance to North Bay Hospital in New Port Richey. Chester was treated for minor injuries and released from a local hospital. Citarella and two passengers were not injured, police said. The investigation was continuing Sunday, and no charges had been filed. Posey, 28, of New Port Richey struggled to recall the crash through the pain of a dislocated shoulder and bumps and bruises all over her body. To help with the pain, above the morphine she was receiving, Posey's mother, Martha Bertrand, hung a picture on the bedside. The photo was of Maria Posey, and it was taken earlier Sunday when Bertrand visited her granddaughter at All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg, where Maria was being treated for a broken pelvis and a broken femur. Milisa Posey can't be with her daughter, but Bertrand said she was there for her granddaughter when she came out of surgery. "She has a pretty pink cast" on her legs and across her hips. A metal pole attached to the casts keeps the little girl from squirming too much. "They have a lot of hope for her," Bertrand said. "She's our baby." - Staff writer Matthew Waite can be reached in west Pasco at 869-6247 or (800) 333-7505, ext. 6247. His e-mail address is waite@sptimes.com.
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