Recent Broward Law Blog Features

Friday, February 13, 2009

Drag Racing Brings Death to Seabreeze Boulevard

Death on the Curve
by Norm Kent


This is an image of a stunning vehicle, a late model Porsche. This morning it is an image of death.
Someone driving a vehicle such as this was in a drag race on Seabreeze Boulevard this morning, just off Las Olas and A1A. Now, on a quiet and calm Friday morning in Fort Lauderdale, two bodies lie in the morgue. The driver of the crashed Porsche is missing, having fled the death scene he created.

The victims, two young men, police say in their 30's, were found dead on the side of the road. Guys that work out at the Zoo Gym on the beach found them. They have not been identified. It is too soon. Perhaps tourists, they are nevertheless two lives tragically snuffed out by the reckless, and now criminal, abandon of others.

About 2:30 a.m., the police found the abandoned white Porsche with 'damage on the front left side.' No one cares about the car. It was lives they left behind. The vehicle was found on the side of northbound Interstate 95 near the eastbound 595 ramp.
For now, the killer has escaped. Perhaps he is lying by the side of the road, shaking off a night of alcohol. Perhaps he telephoned a friend to come get him. But he will be found. He will be apprehended. He will be prosecuted. He will be defended. He will have his day in court. He will also probably spend most of the rest of his life in jail.

Unsuccessfully, police used dogs to try to find the Porsche's runaway driver, but detectives believe the driver may not have fled on foot. Nevertheless, the vehicle will give him away. The DNA will track him down. The forensics will convict him. His life as he knew it is over.
The killer was drag racing in an area we who live in Fort Lauderdale know as 'Dead Man's Curve.' It is wider and safer than it was thirty years ago, but drivers still drag race, drink and act recklessly. On the morning of February 13, 2009 history will record that the curve took two more lives, as yet unidentified.
The serenity of a peaceful beach morning has been stolen. Lives have been shattered. Thirty yards away, there are kids on the beach playing in the sand, not ever knowing the toll some reckless driver in his Porsche exacted only hours before.
Related Story: Leyritz Back to Jail on Bond Revocation for DUI Manslaughter

1 comment:

  1. norm you should become a writer.
    you are really incredible.

    ReplyDelete