A woman has died and another was left seriously injured after a devastating three-vehicle crash on State Road 29 in Collier County that ended with a Florida man being charged with DUI manslaughter.
According to the Florida Highway Patrol, the collision unfolded on Friday night when a Ford pickup truck driven by 29-year-old Alejandro Salto of Lehigh Acres crossed into oncoming traffic.
Troopers say the pickup first sideswiped a southbound Gillig bus before slamming head-on into a Nissan sedan carrying two women.
The impact was catastrophic.
The Nissan’s driver, a 63-year-old woman from Lehigh Acres, suffered serious injuries and was rushed to hospital.
Her passenger, an 85-year-old woman from Miramar, never made it out alive.
She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Investigators say the pickup overturned after the collision, leaving wreckage scattered across the roadway and forcing the closure of State Road 29 for hours while emergency crews worked under floodlights and investigators pieced together exactly what happened.
The bus driver, a 52-year-old man from Naples, escaped without serious injury.
Salto was also injured and taken to hospital. But after being treated and released, he was arrested by troopers and charged with DUI manslaughter.
The case now moves from the crash scene to the courtroom.
For one Florida family, however, the legal process offers little comfort.
An 85-year-old woman who set out on what should have been an ordinary journey never returned home.
And once again, a split-second decision allegedly involving impaired driving has left a family grieving, a community asking questions, and another name added to Florida’s long and tragic list of road fatalities.
The Florida Highway Patrol says the investigation remains ongoing.