17-year-old arrested, charged with vehicular homicide in Clermont rollover crash
CLERMONT — Authorities have arrested a 17-year-old and charged him with vehicular homicide in the Jan. 11 rollover crash that killed an East Ridge High School student in January.
When police arrived at around 6 p.m., they found a 2007 BMW and a 2004 Chevrolet pickup both in the southbound right-turn lane of U.S. Highway 27 just north of Legendary Boulevard, according to police reports.
Someone had called 911 to say, “that a white passenger car was traveling at an extremely high rate of speed and swerving through traffic in a reckless manner, cutting vehicles off on northbound U.S. 27 prior to crashing,” according to the arrest affidavit.
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The drivers and all of the passengers, including the dead girl in the front passenger seat of the BMW were entrapped in the vehicles.
All but the female East Ridge High School student were able to be freed from the wreckage.
The 17-year-old and two passengers were airlifted to Orlando Regional Medical Center with critical injuries. His two passengers had multiple broken bones that required surgery.
The driver of the pickup was also airlifted, and his passenger was taken by ambulance to South Lake Hospital.
The arrest affidavit said the passenger car changed lanes to avoid slow traffic, the driver lost control, spun counterclockwise and struck a raised median with the passenger side tires. Then it began rolling over two lanes of southbound traffic.
When it was on its passenger side, it entered into the right lane of U.S. 27 where the pickup hit the roof of the passenger car head-on. That caused the car to roll up and onto the pickup, then rolled onto the ground, wheels up.
A rear-seat passenger in the car said it was normal for the teen to drive like this, “and he did not think anything of it at the time.”
Because he is a juvenile, the Daily Commercial is not publishing the 17-year-old’s name.