Driver, 26, was drunk, FHP says
A Florida Highway Patrol trooper was seriously hurt after a car being driven by a drunk driver smashed into a crash scene, officials said.
The incident happened shortly after 1 a.m. Sunday in Miami-Dade County at the intersection of Okeechobee Road and the Palmetto Expressway (State Road 826).
According to FHP, trooper Daniel Cruz was at the scene of an earlier two-car crash when a Hyundai Veloster heading north on Okeechobee Road hit one of the crashed vehicles and caused a chain reaction that sent the other crashed car into Cruz.
“Cruz was struck and thrown until he landed on the ground which resulted in serious bodily injury,” an FHP arrest report said.
After an investigation, the Veloster driver, John Bencosme, 26, of northwest Miami-Dade, was arrested and charged with driving under the influence and DUI causing damage.
A sobriety test at the scene showed Bencosme’s blood alcohol concentration to be .201 and then three minutes later .190, according to the arrest report. Both readings are higher than Florida’s legal limit of .08.
Cruz has been with the highway patrol for three years. Family members told reporters that he broke a bone in his lower back and has knee injuries that will require surgery.
“He could only remember lying on the ground and thinking that he was going to die,” Cruz’s brother Paul Garcia said in comments broadcast on WFOR-Ch. 4. Bencosme bonded out of jail Sunday. In an interview with WPLG-Ch. 10, Bencosme said he feels “horrible” about what happened and that he tried to help Cruz at the scene.
“I ran to him as fast as I could,” Bencosme told the station.
Cruz, 29, is the father of a 4-month-old, his parents told WSVNCh. 7 after visiting him at the hospital Sunday.
He faces a long recovery but was alert and speaking, his parents told the station.