TAMPA — Another wrong-way crash on Interstate 275 left three people dead and the interstate’s northbound lanes closed for several hours early Sunday morning.It was the fourth fatal wrong-way crash on I-275 around Tampa since February.
The crash happened around 6:10 a.m., when a 2013 Honda heading south in the northbound lanes crashed head-on into a tractor-trailer going the proper direction, the Florida Highway Patrol said.Killed Sunday morning were driver Gabrielle A. Lanier, 33, and her sister, Lakritra Lanier, 31, both of Tampa, and John Lee Pierson, 26, of Riverview, the FHP said.The tractor trailer’s driver, Michael F. Kellogg, 50, of Lakeland, was not injured, records show. He was hauling petroleum products for Gemini Motor Transport.
It is too soon to say if drugs and alcohol were a factor in Sunday’s crash, as toxicology results could take weeks, said FHP Sgt. Steve Gaskins. Sunday morning’s crash offered a grim scene to morning motorists. The Honda was demolished, and northbound lanes were closed for hours, in part, because the car had to be cut away from a victim so their body could be removed, Gaskins said “Oil was spilled everywhere,” Gaskins said. “The victims were covered in oil. It was a nasty and unpleasant crash scene.”
The series of fatal wrong-way wrecks began Feb. 9, when Daniel Lee Morris took off from a party in his friend’s Ford Explorer before heading south in the northbound lanes on I-275 near Busch Boulevard. Morris, whose blood-alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit at 0.2 crashed head-on into a Hyundai Sonata carrying University of South Florida students Jobin Joy Kuriakose, 21, of Orlando; Ankeet Harshad Patel, 22, of Melbourne; Imtiyaz Ilias, 20, of Fort Myers; and Dammie Yesudas, 21, of Melbourne.
All five people died.
In Florida, a person is considered legally intoxicated with a blood-alcohol level of 0.08. Morris also had a small amount of marijuana in his system. On Feb. 21, Chase Kaleb Leveille, 25, was killed on I-275 when his car struck a box truck head-on near Bearss Avenue. Toxicology reports showed that Leveille had a blood-alcohol count of 0.21 and was under the influence of marijuana. The crash happened around 2:45 a.m., records said.
Investigators said Leveille was initially traveling southbound on I-275 near Busch Boulevard, but for unknown reasons made a U-turn, heading north — the wrong direction — when his 1993 Honda Civic hit the truck On Aug. 15, Edward Jose Duran, 23, was killed after he drove a 1997 Honda Accord north in a southbound lane on I-275, just north of downtown Tampa, when he struck an ambulance head-on. The wreck happened at 2:45 a.m.
Troopers suspect Duran had been drinking or taking drugs. The ambulance’s driver and passenger, an emergency technician, were treated at St. Joseph’s Hospital with minor injuries. Gaskins said it is fortunate that the Honda driven by Gabrielle Lanier on Sunday did not hit a vehicle smaller than the tractor-trailer, as the number of fatalities could have been higher.
“Wrong-way crashes are rare, but because of high closure speeds — 120 to 140 mph — they typically result in serious injury or death,” he said.
