Drunk Lambo Driver Kills Uber Driver in Delray

Delray Police: Lamborghini involved in fatal crash | www.palmbeachpost.com

Health club mogul Roger Wittenberns and his girlfriend were drinking in downtown Delray Beach early Wednesday afternoon before zooming north on Federal Highway in their matching yellow high-performance luxury sports cars.

Meanwhile, J. Gerald Smith, an 82-year-old Uber driver, was headed home to Boynton Beach, where his wife had dinner on the table for him. Smith was crossing Federal Highway west at First Street when Wittenberns’ speeding Lamborghini struck the front of Smith’s Buick Enclave, Delray Beach police say.

Witnesses say Wittenberns, 60, was ejected from his Lamborghini, but survived. Smith, however, died soon after at Delray Medical Center.

“I made him dinner and he didn’t come home,” Gerald’s wife, Eloise, said, her voice shaking. “Until I see his body, it’s like he just went out into space.”

Patty Ann McQuiggin, 61, was driving a yellow Porsche alongside Wittenberns at the time of the crash. She abandoned the car in the parking lot of Anthony’s Coal Fired Pizza, which faces the crash site, and fled, police say. They later found her at her Delray Beach home, which she shares with Wittenberns, in the Vista Del Mar neighborhood east of the Intracoastal Waterway. Officers spoke to her briefly at her house, but she refused to provide an official statement.

Investigators say alcohol and speeding were factors in the crash, the aftermath of which was captured in a Facebook Live video by Delray Beach resident Bill Bathurst.

“Look at that wheel,” Bathurst told The Palm Beach Post, referring to a wheel of Smith’s Buick, turned almost entirely onto its side. “You can see just how incredible the impact was.”

It’s “too soon to tell” whether Wittenberns or McQuiggin will face any criminal charges, said Dani Moschella, police spokeswoman. Investigators will look into the case and hand all information over to the State Attorney’s Office, which will decide whether to pursue charges.

An Uber spokesman said Smith was “active and highly rated” on the ride-hailing app.

“We are deeply saddened by the loss of J. Gerald Smith,” the spokesman said. “Our thoughts are with his friends and family.”

Recent reviews called Smith “lovely” and “very professional.”

Stacey Feldman, who lives around the corner from the crash site, came outside just after it happened. In the past, Feldman has spoken to police and emailed city leaders about that intersection, which sees crashes often, she said. The stretch of road is limited in the number of stops.

“Very tragic,” Feldman said. “Something needs to be done. They need to put a traffic light up. It won’t solve everything, but it will help a great deal.”

People often speed north on Federal Highway, noted Bathurst, who coincidentally founded a group called Human Powered Delray, which advocates for pedestrian and street safety.

“Even if there had been a light at that intersection, it wouldn’t have changed that scenario,” Bathurst said. “(They) were going so fast that that driver probably never saw them coming.”

The speed limit on Federal in downtown Delray Beach is 35 mph. It isn’t clear how fast Wittenberns and McQuiggin were going, but witnesses told police they were speeding.

The crash was captured on surveillance footage from cameras at neighboring businesses, according to police. They were still reveiwing the footage Thursday.

Wittenberns, founder of Diversified Health and Fitness, a Fort Lauderdale-based holding company that owns several health clubs and fitness centers, remains in critical condition but is conscious in the Intensive Care Unit at Delray Medical Center. Wittenberns told police he and McQuiggin had spent the afternoon eating and drinking downtown.

Wittenberns moved to Delray Beach in early 2014, after selling his Fort Lauderdale mansion for $6.5 million and buying a gated $2.1 million home within walking distance of Delray’s coastline, according to property records. On Thursday, the black gates to his home were shut with a Hummer parked on the brick-tiled driveway.

Wittenberns is one of several who lost money, at least $300,000, in Scott Rothstein’s multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme uncovered in 2009, The Post reported.

Wittenberns often posted photos of luxury vehicles, including his yellow Lamborghini, and specialty car shows on his Facebook page, which was apparently taken down Thursday afternoon.

He was ticketed in Broward County in 2012 for apparently speeding through a school zone, going 28 mph in a zone with a limit of 15 mph, in a Maserati, according to court records.

A family member of Wittenberns referred all comments to criminal defense attorney Mitchell Beers, hired to represent the family. Beers declined to comment on the crash.

Beers has represented several high-profile clients in Palm Beach County:

• In 2013, he was the lawyer for former Safe Harbor Animal Sanctuary Director Kay-Lynette Roca following her controversial firing and a subsequent investigation.

• Beers represented one of the defendants in a case where three employees were killed in the kitchen of a Venezuelan restaurant in 2002.

• In 1997, Beers represented a Delray Beach man, Mark Snyder, who had been charged with vehicular homicide and manslaughter by culpable negligence in the May 1996 death of 37-year-old Regina Ann Cassera at the intersection of Congress and Atlantic avenues. The man, Beers said, had suffered an epileptic seizure, which caused him to speed through the red light and collide with a minivan driven by Cassera’s husband. Snyder was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to more than 15 years in prison.

 

This is one of my biggest fears: Someone doing something extremely reckless kills a loved one.

Poor guy just minding his own business and gets taken out. Not fair. The driver should have died, not the older gentleman.

 

I hope they throw the book at him. Drink if you want, but do not get behind the wheel.

 

Same with texting. They need to really up the punishment for these nitwits who drive and text, send/read email while driving and play games while driving. Bad enough no one in Florida signals and the roads are flooded with peole who should not be behind the wheel of a car.

 

I agree 100%.

 

There's another pity here

The reason this is news is because it's a Lambo. This sort of thing happens every day and doesn't get reported with a Camry or a Chevy.

I wish they covered every drunk driving death equally and harshly.

 

The Lambo driver looks familiar, I've seen him at events.

 

Where I come from they do. But there's no doubt that the make of automobile doesn't make it into the headline unless it's something that elicits some emotion.....usually resentment or envy.

 

Well, a couple of things here before everyone starts condemning the Lamborghini driver.

I know none of the parties involved, directly or indirectly. The whole thing stinks all the way around. I'll also start by saying that drinking and driving is absolutely abhorrent and there is no excuse whatsoever for anyone to do it. Neither is there any excuse for reckless speeding in a highly traveled area and intersection where this is inevitable cross traffic. I have no sympathy for anyone who does eithere. However, the Lambo driver had the right of way (no stop sign) and the Uber driver clearly drove into the intersection without looking carefully for oncoming northbound traffic, even if he did stop at his stop sign.

I don't know what's going to happen but let's not conveniently leave out a couple of crucial facts that the Palm Beach Post did.

 

The Lambo driver was way over the speed limit, it's his fault. Of all people you should know sight-lines are greatly affected by speed. The 82 yr old did stop, and he probably looked in the direction of the Lambo and guess what? There was not a car to be seen that was close enough to be a problem. Even if he noticed the Lambo, it would appear it was way to far from the intersection to be a problem, unless he was grossly speeding.
And then to top it off, the perps girlfriend hangs a right turn and flees, without even checking on the well being of her boyfriend or the real victim, even though she saw the horrific crash. Why would she flee unless she was afraid of another DUI?

I don't think I'm going out on a limb to say this is all on the Lambo driver, and his girlfriend is a loser.

 

I didn't say it wasn't the Lambo driver's fault. All I said that there are two additional facts that no one is mentioning (right of way and the stop sign). I don't care how fast someone is going; those two points are still a fact. Speed can be the overriding factor and the deciding factor of who's at fault but that doesn't change right of way and a stop sign. The fact that they aren't mentioned is curious, to say the least.

I"m not saying this happened but I have driven in Delray Beach and had elderly people stop and stop signs and pull out right in front of me as if I weren't even there. I know that's a shocker, right? Anyways, I'm not saying that's what happened here but I've seen it repeatedly with my own eyes. I'm just not saying that it couldn't have happened that way.

Also, it sounds like you know how fast he was going. By reading the article, I couldn't discern if by "speeding" he was doing 45 mph or 145 mph. You seem to know a lot more than the article said so can you please let us know how fast he was going? On a straight road, like Federal Highway, I can probably see 1/2 a mile down the street. If he was doing 85 mph, I can see him. If we was doing 145 mph, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't. Anyways, you seem to know so I'd like to know, too.

Also, I wasn't defending anyone's fleeing the scene so I'm not why you're speaking like I was.

By the way, if we are name calling here, both he and his girlfriend are complete losers. Not just her.

 

I made my judgement after viewing the crash video (go to the second window down on the page to see the full cctv of the crash)

I'm not saying most drivers wouldn't have seen the Lambo, because I don't know, but I can see how the elderly Uber driver either didn't see the Lambo or misjudged the speed.

Both driver of Lamborghini in fatal crash, girlfriend who left scene, have past DUIs - wptv.com

And I didn't think you were defending her fleeing the scene.

 

Ryan, all true. I know the area well and am at that very intersection frequently. Couple more thoughts:

The crash video shows the Lambo was traveling way too fast for the area, no doubt about it.

At that speed that Lambo would have been howling.

The Lambo driver was ejected from the vehicle and is in the hospital. Sooner or later his blood alcohol content level will be revealed.

 

I haven't seen the video and I didn't know the driver was ejected.As I said, there is no excuse for massive speed there. There is inevitable cross traffic and, as Scott said, the speed will seriously interrupt the sight lines. But the reason is think it's not an open and shut case and the authorities haven't filed the charges yet is because of the complications created by those two conditions.

I would love to know the final BAC and speed. I'm sure the BAC is above the limit (I don't care how much as drunk is drunk) but it will be interesting to see if the speed is in the triple digits.

 

New policy in Florida is to charge when the perp is released from medical care. This way the state is not responsible for the medical costs.

 

I just saw the video. Holy crap. Theres a lot of horrible stuff but it's so unbelievable that the girlfriend just watched and fled. Unreal. The whole thing is unreal.

 

Yeah the girlfriend fleeing and then not giving a statement is really unbelievable. Not only because of the crash and the innocent Uber driver, but she also left her boyfriend to fend for himself after he was ejected from the Lambo. She's a real piece of work.

 

From the video it looks like the Lambo driver opened the door and climbed out after the crash.

 

I like this policy. Tax payers should not be on the hook for perp's medical care.

 

Even if a person is indicted, they aren't in state custody until arrested.

Scott

 

Horrible and disgusting...

 

Yes, the older man pulled out in front of him. But had there not been excessive speed there would have been no fatality.

You simply cannot speed down these city streets. Look at all the lives that are shattered bc of their poor decision.

 

You know what's interesting? Someone crossed the intersection in the other direction. I wonder if they just got lucky or if they crossed, saw the speeding Lambo, and tried to get the heck out of the way. Also, I wonder if the Buick driver happened to see the person crossing and felt it was safe to cross? I don't think that it's likely that the crossing driver would have impeded his view at the start but it's possible that as the Lambo got closer, there was no way he could see it because the other car was in his way.

Regardless, that speed was insane and that's the absolute worst place to speed like that. Absolutely horrible.

 

I caught that too. Takes the impact of how "forceful the crash must have been to eject the driver" down a few notches. Can't really tell much about the speed from the video, other than "above walking".
Will the Lambo's ECU record the speed?

 

Not being familiar with the intersection is it possible the uber driver thought that the intersection was controlled by a four way stop sign?