A speeding driver pursued by police crashed into a bar in Tampa’s Ybor City, killing four adults and injuring 11 pedestrians early Saturday, police said.
Nov. 8 A speeding driver pursued by police crashed into a bar in Tampa’s Ybor City, killing four adults and injuring 11 pedestrians early Saturday, police said.
The vehicle slammed into Bradley’s on the Seventh, a bar in the nightlife and tourist area in Ybor City. The driver survived and was arrested.
«They were out in Ybor, having a good time, expecting to go home safely», Tampa Police Chief Lee Bercaw said about the victims, who were all older than 20. «And a careless, reckless driver takes everybody’s lives in his hands and just ended this night in a situation that’s never going to be the same for these individuals.»
Around 12:40 a.m., a police helicopter unit began watching a vehicle driving recklessly on Interstate 275, the agency said in a news release.
«The driver continued to drive recklessly at a high rate of speed and exited the interstate at Doyle Carlton Drive», police said.
Tampa police and Florida Highway Patrol troopers found the vehicle moving, and FHP «initiated a pursuit.»
Then, they tried to stop the driver with a «precision immobilization technique», or PIT, when a law enforcement officer pushes another vehicle sideways abruptly to force that driver to lose control.
