Driver is charged in crash deaths of 2

There were three men in the Ford pickup that fall night and two of them died.

They had all been drinking before the 12:40 a.m. crash on Oct. 11, 2009, according to the Florida Highway Patrol. The driver, Shawn Allen Cleaver, according to a highway patrol report, had alcohol in his system that was more than the 0.08-blood-alcohol limit at which the law presumes impairment. His level was 0.125.

Harry S. Diede Jr.'s blood-alcohol level was 0.123 and Mark Ryan Whisner's was 0.311, a highway patrol report states.

It was shortly after the trio left the Players Club strip club on U.S. 19 at County Line Road in Hudson when Cleaver lost control of his green 2004 Ford F-250.

Diede sat in the front passenger seat. Whisner sat in the right rear passenger seat while Cleaver raced east on Denton Avenue doing nearly twice the posted speed limit of 45 miles per hour, according to a report.

When the roadway curved just east of East Road, Cleaver lost control, driving onto the south grassy shoulder and slamming the right front of the truck into a steel guardrail, a trooper's report states. The truck continued scraping along the guardrail for 98 feet, then traveled up onto it, ripping the right, front tire off the axle. Part of the right fender skin was torn away, too.

The pickup then shot into the air, overturned toward a sand dune and ejected Diede. A steel power pole stopped the truck from flipping and pinned Whisner in the wreckage.

When paramedics arrived, Cleaver was still in the driver's seat, according to the report.

Diede, 30, and Whisner, 40, were pronounced dead at the scene. Cleaver was flown by medical helicopter where he was treated. He had a hip injury and broken back and spent months in the hospital, said Sgt. Larry Kraus.

None of the men had been wearing their seat belts, according to the report.

On Monday, Cleaver, 35, of 3645 Truman Drive, Holiday, turned himself in at the highway patrol's office on State Road 52. He was booked into the Land O' Lakes Jail on two counts each of DUI manslaughter, vehicular homicide, DUI with property damage and one count each of DUI and DUI with serious bodily injury.

He was released later Monday after posting $46,000 bail.

He couldn't be reached for comment Tuesday.