Wrong-Way Driver Collides with Ambulance in Fatal Crash

One man is dead and two EMS workers injured following a head-on collision on Interstate 275 early Friday morning.

The Florida Highway Patrol was tipped off around 2:44 a.m. about a Honda Accord that was heading westbound in the eastbound lanes of Interstate 4 near 50th Street, an email from the patrol said. The car then got onto I-275, traveling northbound in the southbound lanes where it struck a Transcare ambulance that was heading southbound near Floribraska Avenue, the email said.

The driver of the Accord died at the scene. The ambulance was driven by Tarel Omar Peralta, 24, of Wesley Chapel. He and his passenger, Kemecia Tasha Gave Smith, 24, of Lutz, both suffered minor injuries and were taken to a local hospital for treatment, the patrol said.

Troopers have been unable to identify the man driving the Accord.

“The male driver, estimated to be in his 20s or 30s, was carrying no identification,” the email said. “Registration of the vehicle is currently inconclusive which has further hampered attempts to identify the driver.”

The crash closed I-275 until just after 5 a.m. Friday.

The patrol suspects drugs and alcohol played a role in the crash, the email said.