Driver huffed chemical, cops say

Family of four was killed in crash

A 21-year-old driver had huffing chemicals in his system when he hit speeds as high as 107 mph, explosively crashed and embedded his pickup truck into the side of a minivan, killing a family of four on impact, Delray Beach police said. Paul Wilson Streater, of Fort Lauderdale, turned himself in to police Wednesday, nearly three months after the catastrophic April 28 crash on South Federal Highway in Delray Beach.

He faces a total of 11 charges, including four counts each of vehicular homicide and DUI manslaughter, records show.

A blood draw taken hours after the crash showed Streater had in his system Difluoroethane, the main ingredient in Dust-Off, a brand name of canned air used to clean computers, an arrest report said.

Such aerosol products are often inhaled, an act called huffing, to produce mind-altering highs.

Inside Streater’s 2010

Chevrolet Silverado, investigators found a Wal-Mart receipt showing the purchase of two cans of Dust-Off nearly four hours before the wreck, police said. Surveillance video from the store corroborated that evidence by showing Streater and his passenger buying the cans at about 3:30 p.m. No cans of Dust-Off were found in the Silverado.

Witnesses told police that the Silverado barreled along at reckless speeds, drove onto a swale and went airborne

before swerving around traffic and crushing a minivan as it waited to make a left turn, police said.

The family of four, in town from Mexico City and Argentina for a family reunion, were returning from the beach and only a few blocks from the vacation home they had rented when they were hit at about 7:18 p.m., police said. Trafficcrash experts estimated that Streater’s Silverado was going as fast as 102 mph to 107 mph when it struck the minivan.

The collision had such force, the pickup was embedded into the minivan’s

rear passenger compartment and the two vehicles, stuck together, continued to slide along for nearly 250 feet before coming to a stop.

Killed were Veronica Mariel Raschiotto 42, of Mexico; her children, Diego Martinez Raschiotto, 8, and Mia Martinez Raschiotto, 6; and Raschiotto’s brother, Jorge Claudio, 50, of Argentina.

A statement from the family was read at a Wednesday afternoon news conference at the Delray Beach Police Department.

“This senseless tragedy has affected our family in ways that words cannot describe,” the statement said. “Our loved ones that we lost were pure, innocent people

who embraced life and all it had to offer.

“Although this loss continues to weight heavy on our hearts and minds, we harness no resentment. We accept this as part of God’s plan of life for us to learn from.”

At the crash site and since, Streater has claimed his pickup suddenly lurched into high speed and was out of his control.

“His story at the scene was that there was an unintended acceleration,” Sgt. Jeff Rasor said at a news conference Wednesday afternoon.

Streater’s lawyer, Sam Halpern, reiterated that. “His car experienced sudden acceleration. This stuff

happens, this wasn’t a figment of someone’s imagination. He tried to take evasive action to avoid hitting cars stopped at the light. He made a split-second decision to swerve around the left.”

Halpern insisted that his client was not under the influence when the wreck happened.

“He was clearly not impaired, that much I can tell you, as a fact,” he said. “It’s in his system but there’s drugs that stay in your system for a long time and there’s some that last a short time.

“To make a statement that he was intentionally ingesting an aerosol spray, it’s a leap. That’s a conclusion with no evidence.”

Streater’s passenger’s

statement, according to Halpern, corroborated his client’s version of events.

Streater was booked into the Palm Beach County Jail on Tuesday night. At his first court appearance Wednesday, he was ordered held on a $400,000 bond.

Court records show Streater has a pending felony case in Broward County Circuit Court stemming from a November arrest for burglary. Streater and a co-defendant were caught trying to drive away from a Fort Lauderdale beach club with a stolen flat-screen TV, cases of liquor, tools and sunglasses, according to a police report. Streater is free on $3,500 bond while awaiting trial.