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Safeguards for TIA arrival lanes planned before aquarium crash

Staff Photo by MAURICE CAPOBIANCO

A Ford Ranger crashed into this $50,000 aquarium exhibit Monday night, killing about 40 fish, officials say.

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By KEITH MORELLI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 12, 2009

Updated: 11/12/2009 10:27 am

TAMPA - New safeguards are planned for the baggage claim areas at Tampa International Airport to keep vehicles from plowing into walls and through the glass, which happened this past week.

The plans were in place long before a pickup jumped the curb and smashed a 12-foot- long aquarium that made up part of the wall Monday night.

Airport police Chief Paul Sireci said plans have been in the works for some time to reconfigure the curb and possibly add concrete buffers between the busy flow of traffic outside and the travelers crowded around luggage carousels inside.

Yamile Campuzano-Martine had two children in her Ford Ranger pickup, including a 6-year-old on her lap, when she lost control of the truck and plowed into a saltwater aquarium in an exterior wall, smashing the glass and spilling the fish, police said.

The wreck along the blue arrivals area demolished the 1,500-gallon tank worth more than $50,000 and killed most of the 40 to 45 fish, worth as much as $5,000. No one was seriously injured.

The marine exhibit was part of the airport's El Movimiento del Mar public art program. The airport spent $200,000 on the exhibit.

The truck just squeezed through two concrete barricades placed there five years ago after a similar incident at the location, Serici said.

In June 2004, Charles J. Plaskowsky, then 74, of Oldsmar, was trying to park his Nissan Xterra when his foot slipped from the brake, causing the SUV to jump the curb and smash through the glass doors of the blue arrival baggage-claim area.

The vehicle struck John S. Barram, 74, trapping him inside the terminal. He was hospitalized but not seriously injured, police said.

After that incident, concrete columns and heavy concrete benches that served as seats and barricades were put in place, Serici said.

Over the past year or so, a renovation project has been in the works that will make the blue and red arrivals areas safer, he said.

"Engineers and architects are looking at providing more protection," he said.

Reporter Keith Morelli can be reached at (813) 259-7760.

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