by PAT RAIA, [email protected]
A cup of spilled coffee is being blamed for a three-car crash that left a Brooksville man unhurt and five others injured.
According to Florida Highway Patrol Spokesman Sgt. Steve Gaskins, a pick-up truck driven by a 33-year-old Brooksville man; a sedan driven by a 27-year-old woman and her four passengers all from Herato, Arkansas and a sedan driven by a 28-year-old man from Mascotte, Florida were all traveling southbound in the left lane of I-75 when at mile marker 281 in Pasco County, the sedan containing the passengers and the vehicle driven by the Mascotte man all slowed for other slower traffic.
Distracted by his spilled coffee, the Brooksville man failed to slow down.
His vehicle subsequently collided with the rear of the Arkansas woman’s sedan and propelled it forward into the rear of the other sedan.
After the collisions, the Brooksville driver’s pick-up truck and the woman’s sedan rotated until they came to rest along the west shoulder of the roadway. The sedan driven by the Mascotte man rotated until it came to rest along the roadway’s east shoulder.
The woman driver of the sedan and her 30-year-old female passenger both wearing seatbelts sustained minor injuries.
Two other passengers, a 14-year-old boy, and a 13-year-old boy were critically injured in the collision. Her third passenger, a 33-year-old man, was seriously injured.
None of the three was wearing a seatbelt.
Meanwhile, neither of the Florida men was injured in the incident. Both were wearing seatbelts.
