Deadly Hit & Run Crash On I-95
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FORT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) – Tragedy on I-95 when a man trying to help his stranded wife was hit and killed on the side of the road.
It happened around 1 a.m. in the northbound lanes, north of Oakland Park Boulevard.
Juan Garcia, 63, went to pick up his wife Aleshandra after her rental car was hit. Garcia was standing by the side of the road as the car was getting hooked up to a tow truck when it was hit from behind. Garcia was hit by the swinging car and slammed into the guardrail.
"As I was loading up I got out of the vehicle to tie her car down and all of a sudden I see a vehicle come straight at me and it pushed me to the side of the highway and another car came around me and I'm lucky I'm alive right now," said Robby Sternberg, the tow truck driver who barely escaped injury.
Garcia was taken to Broward Health Medical Center where he died a few hours later.
The driver who hit the rental car, identified as 32-year-old Bradley Ruben, took off on foot and was arrested a short time later about half a mile down the road.
"Mr. Bradley ran on foot heading south bound on the north bound lanes. A few minutes later he was apprehended by BSO and resisted arrested without violence," said FHP Lt. Alvaro Feola.
The Florida Highway Patrol said they suspect alcohol played a role in the crash.
Ruben, who was also injured, was treated at the hospital and then taken into custody and booked into the Broward County Jail. His next stop is bond court.
FHP said he would be charged with leaving the scene of an accident causing injury and resisting arrest without violence, Garcia's death, however, means the charges are likely to be upgraded.
