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2 Die In Zephyrhills When Car Spins Out Of Control

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By RONNIE BLAIR, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 24, 2007

Updated: 12/23/2007 10:34 pm

ZEPHYRHILLS - Ryan Hutto was trying to get his life in order.

  Ryan Hutto

About two months ago, he moved out of his mother's house in Plant City and moved in with a friend in Zephyrhills. Soon after, Hutto, 25, took a job at a Hardee's restaurant in Zephyrhills.

"He was really out finding himself," his mother, Barbara Hutto, said Sunday.

Hutto was one of two people who died Saturday night when the car they were in spun out of control on Lane Road in Zephyrhills and collided with another vehicle, the Florida Highway Patrol reported.

The name of the second person was being withheld Sunday because next of kin had not been notified.

Hutto was driving a 1991 Hyundai south on Lane Road at a high rate of speed about 11:45 p.m. Saturday when he steered too far to the right and the car drifted off the road onto the grass shoulder, a patrol report said.

Hutto steered back to the left, but overcorrected and the car began to spin, crossing over into the northbound lane into the path of a 1985 Chevrolet that was slowing to make a left turn into a driveway, the patrol report said.

The passenger side of the Hyundai collided with the front of the Chevrolet, killing Hutto and his passenger, the report said.

The driver of the Chevrolet, Jeffery L. Gazella, 28, of 4225 Lane Road, Zephyrhills, was taken to Florida Hospital Zephyrhills to be treated for minor injuries, the report said.

Gazella was wearing a seatbelt, but Hutto was not, the report said. The report did not indicate whether Hutto's passenger was wearing a seatbelt.

Barbara Hutto said she's not sure whose car her son was driving. She said it wasn't his.

She said her son, a graduate of Plant City High School, had lived with her until about two months ago when she decided it was time for him to find his own place.

"That was at mother's insistence," she said. "It was better for everybody for him to be out on his own."

Barbara Hutto still took care of her son's dog, a 12-year-old schnauzer named Edison.

Ryan Hutto's father died when he was 17 and he never got over that, his mother said.

"He still struggled with the loss," Barbara Hutto said. "He missed his dad. They were very close."

She said her son, who grew up in Plant City, enjoyed being with friends and socializing. He also used to fish and hunt with his father.

"He's going to surely be missed by all his family," she said.

In addition to his mother, Hutto is survived by a half sister, Leann Hutto, who lives in Maine.

Reporter Ronnie Blair can be reached at (813) 948-4218 or rblair@tampatrib.com.

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