Delray police: Truck hit 107 mph in crash
Driver struck minivan, killing 2 adults and 2 children.
DELRAY BEACH — A 21-year-old Delray Beach man was traveling at 107 mph and possibly high on an inhalant when he smashed his truck into a minivan April 28, killing two adults and two children, according to a police report released Wednesday.
Paul Wilson Streater was booked into the Palm Beach County Jail after turning himself in Tuesday night and was being held there late Wednesday in lieu of $400,000 bail. He faces multiple felony charges, including four counts of DUI vehicular manslaughter.
Toxicology reports showed Streater tested positive for difluoroethane, a substance used in the household cleaner Dust-Off. When inhaled, the ingredient causes mind-altering effects, drug
experts say.
Investigators found that a passenger in Streater’s 2010 Chevy Silverado purchased two cans of Dust-Off at a Walmart store in Boynton Beach hours before the crash.
Samuel Halpern, Streater’s attorney, said after Wednesday’s bond hearing at the jail that a stuck accelerator pedal caused the crash and that his client was not impaired.
“He didn’t do anything intentional — period,” Halpern said.
The occupants of the Dodge Caravan were family members — the 50-yearold driver, Jorge Claudio Raschiotto of Argentina, his sister, 42-year-old Veronica Raschiotto of Mexico, and her two children, Diego, 8, and Mia, 6. They were in Delray Beach on a family vacation.
Veronica Raschiotto was an accountant and comptroller at a Mexico City-based global real-estate firm and used her spare time to build homes for the less fortunate, according to the family’s attorney. Her brother, Jorge, was on the faculty at the National University of Lomas de Zamora in Buenos Aires.
In a statement read by Delray Beach Assistant Police Chief Mary Olsen at a news conference Wednesday, the Raschiotto family thanked all those who have left flowers and shown them support.
“This senseless tragedy has affected our family in a way that words cannot describe,” Louis Gomez, who is married to Veronica’s and Jorge’s sister, said in a statement. “Our loved ones that we lost were pure, innocent people who embraced life and all it had to offer. With their children, they shared a love of family and friendships most of us only wish we had.”
Witnesses told Delray Beach police that Streater was driving south on Federal Highway south of Linton Boulevard in a “reckless manner,” weaving in and out of traffic and traveling in excess of 100 mph, when he crashed into the family’s vehicle near Lamat Avenue.
One witness said he ran up to Streater and told him “he is done and going to jail forever.”
Another person who saw the crash jumped out and tried to help two of the victims, but found neither had a pulse.
“I was traumatized,” a man said, according to the arrest report, after peeking inside the wrecked Dodge Caravan.
Police say the Silverado was going 107 mph one second before impact and that Streater never applied his brakes. The speed limit where the crash occurred is 45 mph.
Halpern disputed the investigation’s findings, saying the Silverado has a history of unintended acceleration and that Streater’s vehicle was “possessed” when it smashed into the Caravan.
Halpern also challenged the charge that Streater was under the influence of any substance, stating that “even the police will tell you he was not impaired” and that no cans of Dust-Off were found in the Silverado.
Police did find a receipt inside the vehicle for two cans of Dust-Off that were purchased earlier in the day. They also tracked down surveillance video of the men making the purchase at about 3:30 p.m., less than four hours before the crash.
The arrest report said that difluoroethane, a colorless gas found in Dust-Off, was detected in Streater’s blood. When abused, the chemical is sprayed into a rag and then sniffed, a practice known as “huffing.”
During a news conference Wednesday, Delray Beach police traffic investigator Sgt. Jeff Rasor said that huffing doesn’t produce the same signs as alcohol use, such as glassy eyes.
Huffing inhalants can cause an immediate rush of euphoria as well as possible hallucinations and delusions, according to American Addiction Centers, which runs drug recovery facilities across the U.S.
The “high” from huffing lasts about 15 to 45 minutes, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Rasor said Streater alone was responsible for the crash, saying that the family members “were tragically killed because of one person’s actions.”
Streater was ordered to hand over his passport and will be restricted to house arrest if he posts bond. He also must wear an ankle monitor if he is released.
During Wednesday’s bond hearing, prosecutors asked for Streater to be held on $800,000 bail, but Circuit Judge Dina Keever-Agrama ruled on a $400,000 amount.
Streater faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted of DUI vehicular manslaughter and a mandatory minimum of four years incarceration for each count.
Streater is also facing a burglary charge in Broward County following his arrest in November. A witness said Streater was drunk during the alleged burglary.
Streater and a second man, Jose Rodriguez III, allegedly broke into a beachfront cabana in a prime stretch of State Road A1A in Fort Lauderdale.
Inside, the report said, the two took about $1,450 worth of items: an $800 52-inch plasma flat-screen television set, several cases of liquor worth about $250, a bag of power tools worth about $300 and sunglasses.
“They were bombed out of their mind,” the cabana’s owner told The Post on Wednesday. He said there’s evidence the two “drank up a storm” in his cabana and that they “trashed the place,” smashing liquor bottles against walls and tipping over garbage pails.
Court dockets show Streater’s next court event is a “status hearing” set for February 2019.