By Matt Wiley,
A Wesley Chapel man has been charged with driving under the influence, following a crash on I-75 in which his vehicle struck six people.
According to the Florida Highway Patrol (FHP), John Hegarty, 47, of Meadow Pointe, was traveling south on I-75 in the outside lane, just south of the S.R. 56 interchange, in his 2004 BMW sedan.
At the same time, FHP reports, a 1997 Honda Civic was stopped in the outside lane of southbound I-75 with its emergency lights flashing. In front of the Civic was a 1998 Toyota sedan, which had a flat tire. The six occupants of the two vehicles all were outside, between the two cars, while the flat was being changed.
The FHP report states that, as Hegarty approached the vehicles, he tried to switch from the outside lane to the center lane, but lost control of his car. The front of Hegarty’s BMW struck the left rear of the Civic, propelling it into the back of the Toyota.
The colliding vehicles, the report states, struck all six of the pedestrians, with each sustaining varying degrees of serious injuries. Jerrick Vann, 24, Nagy Ferguson, 24, and Kenneth Collins, 19, were transported to Tampa General Hospital, while Brittany Vaughn, 19, Erica Berry, 22, and a 17-year-old were taken to St. Joseph’s Hospital in Tampa.
Hegarty was found to have a blood alcohol content of 0.10 (just above the legal BAC limit of 0.08) and was charged with felony DUI with serious bodily injury, driving with a suspended license with knowledge of it being suspended, failing to drive in a designated lane and violating business-purposes-only restrictions on his driver’s license. Hegarty also admitted to deputies that he had taken two Xanax pills prior to the incident. He since has been released from the Pasco County Jail on a $3,500 bond.
No comment yet, add your voice below!