Authorities said Nisbany Surit Garcias, 30, was driving drunk when he crashed his pickup truck into a van filled with 15 passengers Tuesday, fatally wounding one
A spring training baseball game trip turned deadly when an alleged drunk driver crashed into a van carrying 15 people, leaving one teen dead and a Powerball winner among the wounded.
Authorities said that Nisbany Surit Garcias, 30, of Fort Myers, Florida, was drunk when he crashed his pickup truck into a van full of 15 friends and family members from Minnesota on Tuesday at about 5.30pm.
The van was carrying the Minnesotans back to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, after the group had spent the afternoon watching the Minnesota Twins play in a spring training game in Fort Myers, according to the Star Tribune.
A Florida Highway Patrol crash report stated that after being hit by the pickup, the van rolled multiple times. High school graduate Lauren VanReese, 18, of Andover, Minnesota, was fatally wounded when she was thrown from the van. The other fourteen people in the van, ranging in age from 4 to 69, were taken to the hospital for treatment or treated on site.
Powerball winner Paul White, 49, who won almost $150million in 2013, was seriously injured in the crash. His partner of nine years — and Lauren’s mother — Kimberly Van Reese, was also injured and said to be in fair condition.
The passenger van (pictured) was allegedly hit by Garcias while it was carrying 15 Minnesotans back to Fort Lauderdale, after they’d spent the afternoon watching a Minnesota Twins game. The van was said to have rolled several times before coming to a stop
Lauren VanReese, 18, was thrown from the van during the collision and died from the injuries she sustained. Fourteen others, ranging in age from 4 to 69, were also injured in the crash
Witnesses told police that they saw Garcias driving his black Ford F-150 truck in a reckless manner and that he had almost caused several wrecks prior to crashing into the van. The crash was said to have been caused when Garcias allegedly changed lane and then hit the van, forcing it into the grass median, where it then rolled multiple times.
First responders noted that Garcias seemed to smell like alcohol and appeared to be impaired. A trooper who spoke with Garcias while he was in the hospital being treated for minor injuries that were consistent with him being the driver of the truck, said Garcias’ speech was slurred and that his eyes were bloodshot and watery.
2013 Powerball jackpot winner Paul White was seriously injured in the crash. White has been in a relationship with Lauren’s mother for nine years. Lauren was 14 when he won the jackpot
White’s partner and Lauren’s mother, Kimberly VanReese (left, with Lauren), was also injured in the crash. She was taken to the hospital in ‘fair’ condition
According to the crash report, while standing on one leg during a field sobriety test, Garcias ‘swayed while balancing.’
A blood test, administered four hours after the crash, revealed that Garcias had a blood-alcohol content of .18 per cent, KVRR reported. The legal BAC limit for driving in Florida is .08 per cent.
Garcias faces one count of DUI causing death and nine counts of DUI causing damage to a person or property. During his court hearing on Thursday, a judge ordered that he continue to be held in jail without a bond, the Sun Sentinel reported.
White made headlines in 2013 when he became one of the winners of a $448.4million Powerball jackpot. At the time, it was the third-largest payout in Powerball’s history, which he shared with two other winners from New Jersey, according to the Star Tribune.
White’s portion of the jackpot was $149.4million. He took the immediate cash payout of $86million, which left him with $58.3million after taxes.
White and Kimberly were already in a four-year relationship when White won. Lauren was 14 at the time.