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Driver Pulls Crash Victim From Burning Car In St. Pete

News Channel 8 photo by ERIC HAUSMANN

Investigators collect evidence after a fiery crash in St. Petersburg.

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By STEPHEN THOMPSON

The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 5, 2008

ST. PETERSBURG - The way Ray Ott tells it, time stopped for him just before 5 a.m. Thursday when he saw a Chevrolet Cobalt crash into a tractor-trailer.

The truck and car then lurched toward him, and that's when the professional poker dealer had time to wonder what his chances were.

Later, he would be grateful the Cobalt struck a wheel well of the tractor-trailer, causing the truck to buckle a bit and slow, giving Ott time to veer his car to the right and out of the way of the jumbled metallic mess that was coming his way.

Once the wreckage came to a stop, Ott said, he noticed the Cobalt was burning and that an arm was hanging out a window. Then, Ott said, there didn't seem to be enough time.

He said he dropped his cell phone - he had been dialing 911 - and ran to the car. The door handle was hot, and the door itself seemed jammed, he said. Someone else was trying to help, but Ott doesn't know who. Ott backed up, approached again, reached in and pulled a man out of the car through a window.

That man, Chad Anthony Petrucelli, 26, of Clearwater, was treated at Bayfront Medical Center but was not admitted.

By the time Ott had pulled Petrucelli from the car, eight to 10 St. Petersburg Police Department cruisers were at the scene and officers were using their fire extinguishers. They couldn't douse the fire, so they dragged the driver out of the car through a window, Ott said.

The Cobalt was fleeing police when it ran the light at 38th Avenue North and 16th Street and crashed.

The driver, Robert Bryant, 23, of St. Petersburg, was taken to Bayfront Medical Center and was in critical condition. No charges have been brought and the investigation continues.

"Funny, you have time to think ... when your life flashes" before your eyes, Ott said from work at Derby Lane on Thursday afternoon. "But when it has to do with a human life, you really don't have time to think too much.

"I think there's something in us that makes us do whatever is necessary," Ott said.

The driver of the tractor-trailer, Benjamin Floyd, 41, of Clearwater, was not injured.

The Cobalt, which is not registered to Bryant, was first noticed by police early Thursday in the parking lot of a 7-Eleven convenience store, according to a statement from Mike Jockers, a traffic homicide investigator.

Bryant drove the Cobalt toward a squad car, and the officer had to back up the cruiser, Jockers said. The officer then motioned for Bryant to put the vehicle in park, but Bryant drove off, and the officer followed him, reporting by radio he was going to attempt to stop the car, Jockers said.

That was in the 2900 block of 16th Street North. Before he reached a point five blocks north of the convenience store - the 34th Avenue intersection - the officer noticed the Cobalt was fleeing, notified his supervisors by radio and turned off his lights and siren, Jockers said.

The car was still in the officer's sights when it ran the red light at 38th Avenue North and crashed into the tractor-trailer, Jockers said.

Reporter Stephen Thompson can be reached at (727) 451-2336 or spthompson@tampatrib.com.

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