TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Some In I-4 Accidents Ticketed

ADVERTISEMENT

By KEITH MORELLI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 11, 2008

Updated: 01/11/2008 03:00 pm

TAMPA - In the dense fog and smoke on a rural stretch of Interstate 4 in Polk County on Wednesday morning, a slightly injured Wilfredo Reveron tried to help.

The Orlando electrician was on his way to a job in Tampa when his became one of the 70 vehicles involved in a pileup on I-4.

As events unfolded in the fog, he helped people and even translated conversations between Florida Highway Patrol troopers and motorists.

"The trooper was going from car to car, talking to drivers, getting information and how much damage was done," Reveron's wife, Cecilia, said from her home this morning. "Then, at the end, the trooper said to my husband, "OK, here's your ticket.' "

Reveron, his wife said, was shocked.

"He got a ticket for careless driving," Reveron said.

The trooper told Reveron he was just doing his job and that if he wanted to contest the $121 citation he could take it to court.

She said several drivers were handed tickets and that her husband plans to contest the citation.

She said her husband was not seriously injured but hasn't been the same since.

"He's very nervous," she said. "You can see he gets the chills."

Her husband's work takes him all over the state, she said, and he often works in Tampa and Daytona.

"He didn't want to go to work yesterday," she said. He had been scheduled to make the drive from Orlando to Tampa again.

Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Larry Coggins said no drivers involved in the initial pileup were ticketed.

And motorists who found themselves in the mess and carefully managed to traverse traffic to get off the highway were not cited, he said.

"All the people who got cited were involved in accidents," he said. All were in the westbound lanes, where no major pileups occurred, he said.

"No tickets were issued in the major crashes. No way," he said. "My troopers were out there helping people in the fire, and they hear bang, bang, bang on the side."

In the immediate aftermath of the initial fatal eastbound crashes, a sort of traffic anarchy prevailed in the westbound lanes, where emergency vehicles and workers mingled with vehicles stranded when traffic halted, Coggins said.

At least some emergency vehicles gained access to the scene by driving east in the westbound lanes. All of this happened in the same blinding conditions that caused thecrashes.

The other crashes apparently occurred as stranded westbound drivers attempted to maneuver out of the mess. Coggins said emergency workers and troopers concentrated on the fires and rescues in the eastbound lanes and did not attempt to keep westbound vehicles from moving.

About 6 a.m., rescue workers started to hear wrecks occurring in the westbound lanes, and that forced resources to be diverted from the eastbound lanes, Coggins said.

None of the crashes in the westbound lanes was serious. Troopers investigating those crashes issued citations because the drivers at fault were not driving safely enough under the conditions to avoid a crash, Coggins said. The motorists who were careful enough to slowly get around the mess and get off the interstate were allowed to go on their way.

"Thousands of other vehicle drivers were careful enough to get away," he said. "They were getting through with no problem. They were going slowly, with no crashes."

Those who got careless driving tickets face not only the fine but also four points on their driving records, said Tampa defense lawyer Ty Trayner, who represents accused traffic offenders in Hillsborough County, "and that's not a good thing to have on your driver's license."

If there is an accident involved, insurance companies keep a file, and even if a cited driver is acquitted, the file is kept by the insurance company, he said. And that could result in increased premiums.

Building a defense for those cited Wednesday may not be easy, Trayner said. If the trooper saw the accident, that's more difficult to defend against. If not, witnesses would be needed, and getting them to come to court could prove difficult for a defense lawyer.

Traynor said a lawyer would have to find out whether the driver indeed was careless "or was just trying to get the hell out of that mess."

Billy Townsend contributed to this report. Keith Morelli can be reached at (813) 259-7760 or kmorelli@tampatrib.com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT