PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla – An off-duty Hillsborough County deputy was injured and another driver was arrested after a wrong-way crash in Pinellas County.
According to the Florida Highway Patrol, troopers received reports just before 10 p.m. Wednesday of a red Dodge Ram pickup traveling northbound in a southbound lane of Interstate 275 across the Skyway Bridge.
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After evading a trooper’s PIT maneuver, the driver of the Dodge took off at a high speed and then collided nearly head-on with a Ford F-150 driven by a 33-year-old off-duty Hillsborough sheriff’s deputy near the 17 milepost.
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Following the crash, the wrong-way driver fled on foot until being apprehended by St. Petersburg police officers.
The off-duty deputy was seriously injured and transported to an area hospital. According to troopers, the driver of the Dodge — 25-year-old Yosman Alexander Ixpata Xitumul, of Brandon — was impaired more than three times the legal limit and was transported to an area hospital for serious injuries.
Xitumul was charged with aggravated fleeing to elude, reckless driving, leaving the scene, leaving the scene with property damage, DUI, DUI with property damage, driving while license suspended, and no proof of insurance in a crash.
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