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The 27-year-old was riding the all-terrain vehicle on a dirt drive after a night of dancing.
By CARY DAVIS
© St. Petersburg Times, published December 11, 2001
Chad Phillips was into dangerous things. Years ago, his mother said, it was bull riding. Then motorcycles. There were accidents, including a bad dirt bike wreck three years ago that left him with a severely broken arm, but nothing could take the thrill seeker out of Chad Phillips.
"He was such a daredevil," said his mother, Leslie Moats.
On Saturday night, Moats said, Phillips left his Shady Hills home to pursue another of his passions: dancing to country music tunes. He and some friends danced the night away at the Dallas Bull in Hillsborough County, where, according to Moats, Phillips "had a couple of beers."
Then Phillips, his best friend and a woman headed for Lutz for some late-night four-wheeling, Moats said. It cost the 27-year-old Phillips his life.
About 4:30 a.m. Sunday, Phillips was operating an all-terrain vehicle on a dirt driveway off Hanna Road, the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office reported. According to his mother, Phillips was standing up on the seat when "the brakes locked." Phillips went over the handlebars and the ATV flipped on top of him.
He was pronounced dead a short time later at University Community Hospital in Tampa.
"It crushed him," said Moats, who broke down Monday afternoon as she described the accident that killed her only child. "He was so beautiful."
The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office described the accident briefly in a news release, which said nothing about alcohol. A detailed report was unavailable late Monday.
Although she said Phillips had been drinking, Moats said her son was not intoxicated.
Phillips of 15201 Little Ranch Road grew up in Pasco and attended Hudson High School, his mother said.
"He had so many friends," Moats said. "He was the life of every party. Everybody loved him."
Phillips recently moved back to Pasco from Fort Myers and took a job hanging drywall, Moats said. Now it's hard for Moats to accept that she will never see him again, wearing his favorite cowboy boots, blue jeans and big belt buckle, smiling and singing along to Hank Williams Jr.
"He was a good-lookin' son-of-a-gun," Moats said.
A memorial service for Phillips will be held Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Loyless Funeral Home in Land O'Lakes.
Music for the service, Moats said, will include a playing of the Garth Brooks song, The Dance.