Staff Reports
A 32-year-old Lake City man was arrested on Sunday after his pickup sideswiped another vehicle on Interstate 75 before his vehicle overturned and struck a tree, killing one passenger and seriously injuring another south of Lake City.
According to a Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) release, the 32-year-old Lake City man was reportedly driving erratically while going south on I-75 near mile marker 418 at 1:37 p.m. before sideswiping a pickup being driven by a 57-year-old Dunnellon man.
The Dunnellon man came to a controlled stop, but the first pickup driven by the Lake City man overturned and struck a tree on the west shoulder of I-75.
Emergency responders pronounced a 28-year-old Lake City man riding in the overturned pickup dead on scene. A second Lake City man from the overturned pickup, age unknown, was transported to UF Health Shands in Gainesville in serious condition. Neither were wearing seatbelts.
The Lake City man driving the overturned pickup, later identified as Sergio Diaz-Ortiz, fled the scene into a wooded area. Law enforcement apprehended Diaz-Ortiz, who had minor injuries and was wearing a seatbelt, and transported him to the Columbia County Jail where he is being charged with vehicular homicide, no driver’s license and leaving the scene with a death.
The driver of the second pickup and his passenger, a 51-year-old Dunnellon woman, were not injured.