Woman killed in crash ‘loved by everyone’

A young woman in a Honda Civic was killed after driving the wrong way on Interstate 75 in Weston and crashing into two trucks, the Florida Highway Patrol said.

The collisions happened about midnight Monday just east of the I-75 intersection with U.S. 27, in western Broward County and sent three survivors to hospitals.

Flavia Pinto, 23, a college student and restaurant worker from Pembroke Pines who was driving the Honda, died at the scene.

“It appears at this moment that the Honda was traveling the wrong way,” said Florida Highway Patrol Lt. Alvaro Feola. “The Honda was traveling southbound in the northbound lanes and the [Toyota] pickup truck [and] the Nissan Frontier [were] traveling correct — northbound.”

Feola did not say where the Honda entered the highway or how it ended up driving against traffic.

Pinto rescued animals, and a dog she recently adopted also died in the crash, her family said.

“She was a South Florida girl who loves the sun, loves vacation,” said her brother Richard Pinto, 20. “She was always the type to light up the room. She was very loved by everyone she met.”

Pinto’s distraught mother Mariane Pinto said her daughter “was goal oriented, she loved life. She was the life of the party. So goodhearted.”

Pinto was wearing a seat belt. Whether she was driving while impaired is still being investigated, Feola said.

The driver of the Nissan, Jose Carabeo, 54, of Valrico, east of Tampa, was flown to Broward Health Medical Center. Paramedics took his passenger, Cindy Sanchez Carabeo, 53, also of Valrico, in an ambulance to the same hospital in Fort Lauderdale.

Both have serious injuries after the head-on collision with the Honda, according to FHP.

After the initial crash with the Nissan, Pinto’s Honda struck a Toyota pickup, which sustained heavy damage.

Reynier Diaz, 29, of Naples, the driver of the Toyota, was not seriously hurt and was taken to the Cleveland Clinic in Weston, according to Feola.

Traffic investigators gathered evidence through the night and until well after daylight Tuesday.

Pinto’s family said Tuesday said she attended Florida International University and was studying hospitality. She also was a server at a Fort Lauderdale restaurant, they said.

Pinto is survived by her parents and three siblings. She was born in New York City and the family moved to Pembroke Pines when she was 3 years old.

The relatives were not certain where Flavia Pinto was traveling from when the crash happened, and said it was part of the police investigation.

The crash site blocked northbound lanes that take drivers toward Naples and were closed for nearly nine hours. Until those lanes were opened at about 9 a.m. Tuesday, traffic heading west across the state was detoured to U.S. 27.