• 31
  • October
    2011

Tampa police reported that a driver lost consciousness while behind the wheel last week before running a red light and crashing into a minivan on Hillsborough Avenue. Two people in the minivan were killed and a 3-year-old passenger was injured.

Not far from this deadly Tampa Bay car accident, the same driver was involved in a similar accident four years ago. The driver blacked out, again while behind the wheel, and slammed into two parked cars. Luckily, no one was killed in that Florida car crash.

After the 2007 crash, the Medical Review Section of the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles requested information regarding a medical condition that may have affected whether or not the driver was ok to drive. The Medical Review Section requested that the driver submit information from his doctor related to his condition as well as documentation of his treatment. The driver's license was revoked in 2008 after he failed to send in the requested information.

Without further information from the driver's doctor, the Medical Review Board believed his condition made him unsafe to drive. But, the Florida driver's license was reinstated in 2009, and again in 2010 after another temporary revocation. He was then fully cleared to drive, with no follow up required.

The driver suffered from seizures, according to his sister. It is unknown what medical condition the Review Board had issue with as the health-related information is not public record.

The question remains whether or not the two deaths and the child's injuries from the Tampa car accident last week could have been prevented if the driver, with a medical condition that at one point resulted in his license being suspended, was not allowed to drive. Some also question whether the driver himself should have gotten behind the wheel, knowing of his own medical condition and his own potential to black out behind the wheel again.

Source: TampaBay.com, "Driver involved in fatal Tampa crash had been monitored, then cleared, by state," 26 October 2011