Road rage turns deadly; 14-year-old girl killed
Danney Ball
Road rage turns deadly; 14-year-old girl killed
SYLVIA LIM and AIMEE JUAREZ
Herald Staff Writers
MANATEE - A 14-year-old was killed and her 12-year-old brother was near death late Friday, victims of an accident caused by road rage.
A pest-control truck, trying to avoid an angry driver, ran a red light and slammed into a Ford Contour at U.S. 41 and 73rd Street East, witnesses said. The impact killed Lincoln Middle School student Elizabeth Toribio, who was a front-seat passenger in the Ford, and sent her brother to a St. Petersburg hospital in critical condition, relatives and Florida Highway Patrol troopers said.
Manatee and Hillsborough law enforcement officials are looking for the driver of the maroon Cadillac who apparently harassed the driver and five crew members in the truck, FHP Lt. Doug Dodson said.
One witness said the driver of the Cadillac pulled out a gun and fired several gunshots at the truck driver. Troopers could not confirm the gunfire because they had not found bullet shell casings at the intersection.
Troopers consoled Elizabeth Toribio's parents as the couple cried over the girl's body, which lay wrapped in a body bag on a gurney just yards from the Ford Contour.
Moments later, the couple began to walk away. Elizabeth's father Pedro Toribio stumbled through the patchy grass past the police line. He fell to his knees, sobbing in agony as authorities closed the body bag and pushed the gurney to an awaiting ambulance.
A passing clergyman stopped at the scene, placing a firm hand on the grieving father's shoulder. Neighbors and friends comforted Kenda Toribio as she stood in shock over her daughter's death.
Elizabeth, her sister Yesenia Toribio, 22, and 12-year-old Pedro Toribio, also a student at Lincoln Middle School, were among the four passengers in the Ford. Yesenia, a student at Manatee Community College, was driving the group to a skating rink, family members said. They had just left the house and were less than a mile away from home when the truck struck the car.
Kenda and Pedro Toribio were at home when they received a call from Bayfront Medical Center, the couple told The Herald. Stricken with shock and grief, neighbors accompanied the couple to the crash scene.
"What can go through your mind?" Kenda said. "You want to get to them as fast as possible. You wish it was you, not them."
Unsure of the condition of their surviving daughter and son, the Toribios gathered together and wept with their friends and neighbors before leaving the crash scene to head to Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg.
"I don't know how she's doing," Kenda Toribio said. "They didn't tell us much more."
The driver of the truck was taken to Manatee Memorial Hospital, said an employee of Haskell Termite & Pest Control company. He declined to give his name or comment on the crash. The five other crew members were not hurt.
The crash occurred at 6:51 p.m. just south of Rubonia, authorities said.
Troopers searched for evidence to corroborate a witness' statement that she saw the Cadillac's driver fire several times at the truck.
"I heard a pop, and I thought it was my tire," said Sally Beaubien, a Bradenton resident who was heading south on U.S. 41.
She glanced in her rearview mirror and saw the truck flying up the road from the northbound lane, blaring its horns. Then she heard three more pops.
"I saw his arm through the passenger window, and he had a gun," said Beaubien, who was sitting near the crumpled white car wedged next to the truck. The truck and car ended up in a ditch just below the traffic light on the northbound shoulder.
She said the maroon car sped off west, and she stopped to call 911. Beaubien began to tremble and cry as she recalled seeing the driver and passengers of the Ford.
"The backseat person and driver seemed lifeless," she said, her eyes welling up. "They all seemed lifeless."
Two 19-year-old women, who are visiting from Orlando, pulled over after the crash to see if they could lend a hand.
Lora Lesnikowski was driving behind the truck when she saw it swerving in the middle lane.
The maroon car was speeding and trying to get around the truck, she said. Lesnikowski said she began to slow down.
"At first I thought the truck was trying to block him (the Cadillac) off," she said.
Then she saw a hand out the window and thought the Cadillac's driver was flipping off the truck driver.
She never heard any gunshots or the truck blaring its horn because her windows were closed. The next thing she knew, the truck had run a red light and crashed into a white car.
Lesnikowski and her friend, Cassandra Prescott, stopped and called 911.
"It's not the truck's fault and we didn't want them to get the blame," Prescott said. "It's a tragic accident."
The truck driver appeared to be in pretty bad shape, Beaubien said.
"He was lying on the ground, crying," Beaubien remembered. "He kept saying 'I didn't want to kill anyone.' "
Superintendent Roger Dearing, whose daughter was paralyzed in an auto accident, expressed deep sympathy for the Toribio family.
"As the father of a family devastated by a traffic accident, it just rips your heart out," Dearing said. "There's really nothing anybody can say or do. As a school system, we'll do anything we can to help the family or families involved in this tragedy."
Sylvia Lim and Aimee Juarez, criminal justice reporters, can be reached at 748-0411, ext. 7041 for Lim, ext. 7095 for Juarez, or at sl...@HeraldToday.com or aju...@HeraldToday.com. Michael Barber, Herald staff writer, contributed to this report.
