Ryan Hamaker was returning to his home in Buckingham at Tampa Palms when he caught site of a number of cars outside the entrance into his development.
The car that really caught his attention, however, was the 2015 metallic gold Maserati Ghibli planted front-first into the brick wall that once welcomed visitors to Buckingham.
“I was in complete shock,’’ said Hamaker, who is also the Home Owner’s Association president at Buckingham.
According to the Tampa Police Department, Kensington at Tampa Palms resident Mohammed Ahmed Salti was traveling west on Tampa Palms Blvd. when he failed to notice a red pick-up truck with a trailer carting three large drums that was pulling out of Buckingham and turning east on Sept. 17.
Surveillance video, viewed by the Neighborhood News, doesn’t appear to show Salti making any attempt to veer out of the way, but the Maserati clipped the back passenger’s side of the trailer and was redirected into a brick wall on the west side of the entrance.
“We had a contractor coming out of the gate,” Hamaker said. “In his own version (of the story), he saw the car and he had plenty of time to pull out, he just didn’t realize the guy was just flying.”
No one was injured in the crash.
But, some Buckingham residents have been left wondering what might have happened. They shudder to consider that the Maserati, which is valued at roughly $80,000-$90,000, flew through a corner that serves as a school bus stop for Liberty Middle School and is heavily populated on weekday mornings.
“That’s the first thing I thought,’’ said Jennifer Evans, whose 11- and 13-year-old sons wait on that corner in the mornings for the bus. “Someone could have gotten killed. It’s crazy.”
Evans was returning home from errands when she saw police cars.
“I was a little curious why there was a gold car decorating our signage,’’ she said.
Since the brakes were never applied before the car crashed, if the wall hadn’t been there, it is likely the Maserati would have ended up in the backyard, and maybe the bedroom, of its residents, said a homeowner named Kulendrian, who asked us to not use his last name.
“I heard a big noise,” he said. “I didn’t really know what happened. It was right behind my bedroom. Without the tree and landscape, my property would have been hit.”
Bricks did fly into the side of his house and also damaged his pool cage. Oftentimes, Kulendrian’s mother-in-law would be tending to plants in that area.
“Thank God that nobody was there,’’ he said.
Kulendrian says he and his wife often hear the sounds of cars screaming down Tampa Palms Blvd., and sometimes rush to their upstairs window to catch a glimpse of who it is.
“You just hear the zoom,’’ he says.
Police say Salti was traveling the posted speed limit of 40 mph when he struck the trailer, although it is impossible to tell his exact speed. Those who have viewed the surveillance video say it appears he was traveling faster.
The wall was destroyed. Almost two weeks after the accident, Hamaker says Salti’s car insurance company, Progressive, is refusing to pay to rebuild it.
Hamaker estimates the wall damage at $45,000. It is composed of real brick, not stucco or veneer. Some of those brick pieces hit the house behind the wall, and one large chunk of brick came to rest on the hood of the Maserati and was too heavy to move off without mechanical assistance.
He said all Tampa Palms properties have special computer-engraved monument signs and that the engraving alone costs more than $13,000.
Hamaker said there also was damage done to the lights, as the Maserati hit the external power supply, and busted the city water main that is used for the landscaping.
“There was a water spout when we moved the car,’’ Hamaker said.
He was also frustrated because Buckingham HOA just had the entire front of the entrance re-landscaped, at a cost of $8,000, two days before the Maserati crashed over it.
Speeding cars ripping through Tampa Palms Blvd., especially near Buckingham and Tuscany, is a growing concern. Tampa Palms Blvd. is a collector road, so no speed bumps, stop signs or lights are permitted. The road is a long, curved two-lane stretch of semi-clear sailing that Hamaker and other residents complain is a popular choice for some of the souped-up cars in the area.
“We definitely have a problem with speeders,’’ Hamaker said. “They all tend to be these exotic cars around Tampa Palms. Most concerning is that Tampa Palms is loaded with kids. In fact, on Saturdays and Sundays, it is not uncommon for my wife and our two kids to be out there cycling. And, the fact that this was right over a school bus stop is even scarier.”
Evans said there is a huge walking path along Tampa Palms Blvd., and on most days, kids are biking, joggers are running and families are walking their dogs on the path.
“The driver of that car was so unimaginably lucky that there was no one walking through or parked there,’’ Evans said. “It could have been a huge disaster.”
Hamaker says that the HOA at Buckingham has hired off duty police officers twice a month the past few years to monitor the speeds in his community, and tickets have been issued in the past. While that may annoy some people, Hamaker said the sight of the metallic gold Maserati Ghibli slammed into a brick wall just a few feet from a school bus stop is a stark reminder of what could have been.
“It’s got to stop,’’ he said.
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