Associated Press
DeLEON SPRINGS, Fla. - A motorist drove home about a mile with the legless body of a pedestrian in his front windshield before calling authorities to report that he hit the man with his car, officials said.
Joseph Markert, 57, was trying to cross U.S. 1 in DeLeon Springs when he was hit by a car driven by Daniel Dradeen, 19, the Florida Highway Patrol said.
The medical examiner will determine if Markert survived the impact, but it’s more likely that he died immediately, said Mark O’Keefe of EVAC, which provides emergency services for Volusia County.
Deputies first learned of the accident, which happened about midnight Friday, from patrons at a bar who called 911 to report finding two legs near the parking lot, Volusia County sheriff’s reports said.
The next 911 call came from the home of Ronald Brownie, where Dradeen had driven with Markert’s upper body. Dradeen had been living with Brownie and his 19-year-old son Ronald Brownie Jr., who made the 911 call, the reports showed.
Dradeen didn’t stop to report the accident because he didn’t have a cellular phone with him and Brownie’s home was only about a mile from the accident site, Brownie said.
“A guy coming through your front windshield tends to rattle you,” Brownie.
Paramedics who arrived at the home quickly pronounced Markert dead. One of his arms was also severed in the accident and found with his torso in Dradeen’s blood-covered car, officials said. Investigators believe the legs were severed by the impact with the car, not the windshield.
FHP spokeswoman Kim Miller said Dradeen was not impaired and no hit-and-run charges will be filed, but she said the case is being reviewed by a homicide investigator.
“It’s the pedestrian’s fault. He was wearing dark clothing,” Miller said. “The poor kid (Dradeen) was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”’
DeLeon Springs is about 40 miles north of Orlando.