POLK COUNTY, Fla. – Two women were hospitalized early Sunday, one of them suffering serious injuries, after their SUV was crashed into by a Mustang that reportedly sped away from a Florida Highway Patrol trooper in Polk County.
The crash occurred around 12:17 a.m. along Ronald Reagan Parkway, near its intersection with Pine Tree Trail, a statement reads.
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A trooper conducting radar speed enforcement near the roadway’s intersection with Champions Gate Boulevard observed a red 2015 Ford Mustang pass their position at nearly 80 mph, in what was noted by FHP as a 45 mph zone.
As the trooper activated their emergency lights and entered traffic, the driver of the Mustang allegedly turned their vehicle’s lights off, soon accelerating over a rise and around a curve. The trooper lost sight of the Mustang, switching off their emergency lights and backing off from their attempt to overtake the Ford, according to the statement.
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Approaching Ronald Reagan Parkway’s intersection with Pine Tree Trail however, the trooper saw that the Mustang had slammed into a 2008 Nissan Pathfinder, FHP said.
Both occupants of the Pathfinder — a 22-year-old woman who was driving it and a 21-year-old woman in a passenger’s seat, both of Davenport — were hospitalized, troopers said. The woman who was driving the SUV remains hospitalized in serious condition at the time of this report, according to FHP.
Inside of the Mustang was a 17-year-old Haines City boy in a back seat, the only one left in the car after the driver and another passenger ran away from the wreck, the statement reads. Polk County deputies assisted in finding the other passenger — a 15-year-old Haines City boy — but authorities are still looking for the Mustang’s driver, identified by FHP as Ramon Santiago-Garcia, 18, also of Haines City.
Anyone with information regarding Santiago-Garcia was urged to call *FHP (*347) or Crime Stoppers at **TIPS (**8477).
No other information was shared.
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