Driver of Porsche sought after fleeing Greenacres crash that killed two men
GREENACRES — Authorities are looking for the driver of a Porsche whose “violent collision” with an SUV early Saturday in a quiet Greenacres neighborhood killed two men who were thrown from the Honda CRV.
The Porsche’ s driver ran from the crash, leaving the luxury vehicle behind, the Palm Beach County Sheriff ’s Office said Wednesday. A nearby business’ security cameras captured footage of the crash, but no description of the driver was available.
The 3:30 a.m. crash at Swain Boulevard and Second Street killed Juan Hernandez, 29, and Angel Xon, 47, both of suburban West Palm Beach, the Sheriff ’s Office said Wednesday. They were passengers in a 2007 Honda CRV driven by Jaime Avila, 43, who sustained minor injuries.
The crash marked the second time in 21 months that a fatal hitand-run crash shook the neighborhood of single-story, single-family homes north of Lake Worth Road and west of Haverhill Road. An 18-year-old woman died in March 2016 when a 19-year-old drove a car into her mother’s Honda SUV less than a quarter-mile away.
And it was the latest among thousands of hit-and-run crashes in recent years in Palm Beach County, where there were 7,694 wrecks in 2016, the most recent year for which state fifigures are available. That total placed
the county third overall for Florida, behind only MiamiDade and Broward. Twelve of those crashes were fatal.
One in four crashes in Florida during 2016 involved a hit-and-run — so many that the Florida Highway Patrol since August 2016 has set aside troopers to work solely on crashes on Interstate 95 and Florida’s Turnpike. The headlights of the 2013 si lver Porsche Panamera involved in Saturday’s crash were turned offff as it sped north on Swain in the predawn darkness, the Sheriff ’s Offiffice said in its report. It ran a stop sign at Second Street and struck the SUV, which was traveling east on Second, on the rear of its passenger side.
Video from the Family Grocery store at Second and Swain viewed by The Post on Saturday showed the impact of the wreck spinning the SUV around and debris spraying off it. The rear driver’s side door flflew open and one of the wheels rolled off the CRV. It also showed Hernandez and Xon being thrown from the vehicle.
Both the store and the Sheriff ’s Office declined to provide The Post with a copy of the video for publication Wednesday.
The Sheriff ’s Offiffice found no evidence at the scene that Avila was under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of the wreck. He was wearing a seat belt, according to the crash report.
Marielena Plaza died on March 23, 2016, in a crash one block south and one block west of Saturday ’s crash site. She was riding to a grocery store with her
mother and brother when Hector Calderon, then 19, ran through a stop sign in a sto- len 2002 Toyota Camry and crashed into Plaza’s mother’s Honda CRV at Martin Avenue and First Street.
Calderon was sentenced to 12 years in prison in July after pleading guilty to DUI manslaughter, leaving the scene of a crash causing death and DUI with personal injury. His driver’s license also was permanently revoked.
His sentence was in line with increased penalties the state imposed in 2014 for drivers who flee crash scenes. Motorists who leave injury crashes face up to five years in prison. Those who
don’t stop in wrecks where somebody dies face a mandatory minimum of four years in prison.
Anyone with information on Saturday’s crash is asked to call Crime Stoppers of Palm Beach County at 800458-TIPS ( 8477).
Staffff writers Jorge Milian and Mike Stucka contributed to this story.