Osceola Deputy’s License Temporarily Revoked After Fatal Crash

By Orlando Personal Injury Attorney on August 23, 2019

We’ve been keeping track of an incident that took place last October involving a deputy with the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office and resulted in the death of a 34-year-old individual after an auto accident. Today, it appears that some movement with that case has been made, although it is not clear if the individual’s who lost a loved one and a family member agree that justice has indeed been served.

As you can read in our initial post on the incident, the crash happened on the 5th of October, 2018. The deputy was behind the wheel of a Dodge Charger that was also a police patrol vehicle. They were driving down the eastern lanes of U.S. 192 when they approached an intersection. At the time the deputy reached the intersection, the light governing their lane of travel was red. It appears that the deputy failed to notice this, and subsequently failed to slow down. Because of this, the deputy was traveling at nearly 50 mph when they slammed into the rear of a pickup truck.

The force of the collision thrust the pickup truck into the rear of a van and also caused the driver of the pickup truck to sustain injuries that proved to be fatal.

The initial consequences of the collision saw the deputy being placed on paid administrative leave. When they returned to the force, the same deputy was involved in yet another crash. After this second crash they were removed from driving duties. Now, as a result of lengthy trial proceedings, they have received a sentence of 6 months without a license.

According to Lt. Kim Montes, a spokesperson for the Florida Highway Patrol, the reason behind this seemingly light consequence was that there was no evidence that the driver of the patrol car was operating their vehicle in an unsafe manner leading up to the crash. This means that there was no indication that the deputy was speeding, driving erratically, or being careless. It is not clear how the Florida Highway Patrol accounts for the fatal accident taking place at all if not for the carelessness of the deputy.

An internal investigation by the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office into the fatal accident continues to progress, although it is not clear if they are considering additional legal action against the deputy.

James O. Cunningham

Since 1977, personal injury lawyer James Cunningham has provided effective legal advocacy to people who are injured through the negligent actions of another person or entity throughout the Central Florida area. He fights to obtain recoveries for his clients’ physical and emotional pain and suffering and pursues his clients’ personal injury cases with a commitment to excellence and impeccable preparation.