HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — Two people were seriously injured, and one other later died of his injuries after the driver of the vehicle they were passengers in jumped a fence and crashed into a parked pickup truck at a car dealership in Seffner on Sunday.
Florida Highway Patrol said at 1:38 a.m., a sergeant clocked a Hyundai Elantra going 111 mph on I-4 east of Mango Road. The sergeant clocked the Hyundai multiple times going 111 mph, FHP said.
The sergeant attempted to stop the car and was eventually able to overtake the Hyundai. As the sergeant overtook the car, the driver turned hard to the right, the car entered the shoulder and then became airborne.
The Hyundai then collided with a Ford F-250 pickup truck parked at Gator Ford. With the car still moving, it then hit a concrete light pole and a palm tree before finally stopping.
FHP caught the crash on camera:
FHP said a 19-year-old passenger was thrown from the front seat to the back seat and two other passengers were completely ejected from the car. All three passengers were taken to a local hospital with serious injuries, FHP said.
The driver, 24-year-old Jennifer Carvajal, was the only person inside the car who was restrained.
FHP later arrested Carvajal for reckless driving-serious injury, DUI-serious injury, multiple counts of DUI property damage, no driver's license-serious injury and Violation of Probation-DUI manslaughter. Officials with FHP say her charges will be upgraded now that one of the passengers has died.
ABC Action News later learned Carvajal is currently on probation for DUI manslaughter from a crash back in 2014 which killed a driver in Plant City. Carvajal did not have a driver's license then, nor did she have one at the time of Sunday's crash.
Linda Unfried, the co-founder of the Hillsborough County Chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (M.A.D.D.) aided the victim's family in that 2014 crash, and she urges the families of the victims involved in Sunday's crash to reach out to M.A.D.D.
“I’m urging the family of the victims to call M.A.D.D. That’s what we’re here for. So please, if you’re listening, call us, please call us and let us help you through this system," said Unfried.
