Suspected drunken driver crashes into 5 kids, killing 1
Johnathan “J.J.” Quintana’s 11-year-old daughter called him Thursday afternoon, just like she does every day, to ask him to pick her up from the school bus stop at the end of their street in Poinciana. And then she screamed. In a panic, the girl tried explaining that a car had just plowed through a group of her friends. Their 13-year-old neighbor and another boy were really hurt, she told him.
Her dad, a Polk County deputy, who works nights, said he jumped out of bed and ran barefoot down the road, terrified of what he’d find.
“I’ve been doing this job for almost four years and I’ve seen a lot. I’ve been involved in a lot,” he said Friday, fighting tears while recounting the scene. “Nothing compares to hearing your daughter ask for help and you can’t do anything.”
Five children, all students at Dundee Ridge Middle Academy in Poinciana, were hit by the car being driven by a suspected drunken driver, according to the Sheriff ’s Office.
One of them, 13-year-old Jahiem Robertson, died from
his injuries Friday morning, sheriff ’s officials said.
The driver, identified as 48-year-old John Camfield, fled the scene and then hit another car, injuring a pregnant woman, but was quickly arrested by Quintana, the Sheriff’s Office said. He is facing 11 charges, including vehicular homicide, driving under the influence with serious bodily injury and leaving the scene of a crash, according to the Sheriff ’s Office.
Camfield is a former law enforcement officer and worked at 10 agencies in Mississippi for nearly two decades before moving to the area in unincorporated Poinciana, Polk Sheriff Grady Judd said at a news conference Friday morning.
Judd said Camfield has previously faced drunkdriving related charges in Mississippi and initially refused a breathalyzer test at the scene on Thursday. He later agreed and about seven hours after the crash, had a breath-alcohol level of .147 — nearly twice Florida’s legal limit, according to the Sheriff ’s Office.
The crash happened about 5 p.m. just after the children got off their school bus on Allegheny Road near Athabasca Drive in a neighborhood southwest of Poinciana.
“They weren’t in the road, they weren’t misbehaving,” he said. “They were just being middle school children.”
Three of them, Jonte Robinson, 15; Jasmine Robertson, 14; and Rylan Pryce, 12, were treated at the scene for minor injuries, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
The other two, Jahiem and 13-year-old Juan Mena, were critically injured and taken to Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children in Orlando.
Jahiem died from his injuries, according to the Sheriff ’s Office.
Judd said the school bus had already driven away when the crash happened.
Polk County Schools Superintendent Jacqueline Byrd, who also spoke at the news conference, said grief counselors were available for students.
Quintana said when he saw that his daughter was physically fine, he immediately switched from a father to a deputy. He ran home, grabbed sandals and his patrol car, and returned to the scene, where he started administering first aid to the critically injured children.
A witness then directed Quintana in the direction in which she saw Camfield’s black sedan leave the scene. Quintana drove that way and found Camfield stumbling out of the smashed car stopped about three quarters of a mile away, he said.
Judd said Camfield had “total disregard for human life,” and at one point fell into Quintana’s patrol car, denting it.
Investigators didn’t find any evidence that Camfield applied the car brakes before the children were hit, sheriff ’s officials said. They also confirmed witness accounts that the children were walking on a grassy shoulder at the time.
Camfield is being held at the Polk County Jail on $600,000 bond, and a restriction that he not use drugs or alcohol.