A Cuban businessman identified as Carlos Blanco lost his life this Friday after being involved in a serious chain collision at the intersection of Avenue 87 and 36th Street in northwest Doral, Florida.
According to Univision, family and friends of the deceased stated that Blanco suffered a cardiac episode moments before the accident, which caused him to lose control of the vehicle.
A heart attack behind the wheel
The accident occurred shortly before 11 a.m. at one of the busiest intersections in Doral.
The victim was driving a red GMC pickup truck traveling north to south when it suddenly veered into oncoming traffic, ran a red light, and crashed onto a white car that was stopped, triggering a chain reaction involving a total of six vehicles.
Acquaintances of Blanco, who preferred to remain anonymous, confirmed to Univision that he was the driver of the red GMC and that he suffered a heart attack just seconds before the incident.
He was described as the manager of the company Satcha Bowling and it was noted that he had recently returned to Florida.
The testimony of the witnesses
Several witnesses agreed that something unusual happened to the driver before the crash.
One of them recounted to Telemundo 51: "The red truck was coming from the north heading south, on the wrong side of the lane, at an incredible speed. It seems something happened to the person; it appears to me they had a heart attack based on what was being said and pressed the gas, not stopping until they crashed into the car in front."
A witness who identified himself as a pastor described the moment when the paramedics were trying to revive the driver.
"They were giving him cardiopulmonary resuscitation. He wasn't responding. I was praying for him there, but no... I am a pastor," he declared to the same outlet.
The violence of the impact left those who witnessed it in shock. "We heard a very loud noise. An explosion. Right away, I saw the police and the firefighters," another witness told Telemundo 51.
One of the affected drivers recounted the moment to Univision: "The car was coming right at me, I was speaking to someone and I thought, how is this person going to hit me, and then they hit me."
A wounded victim described the physical consequences: “I have bruises all over, and I hit my head on the car because the car jumped.”
A witness who saw the driver of the white car trapped among the metal added, "The man, it seems, had a broken head; I saw two parts, one here and another here."
Massive emergency operation
The magnitude of the disaster forced the declaration of a Level 1 Mass Casualty Event.
Miami-Dade Fire Rescue dispatched nearly 18 emergency units, including the Technical Rescue Team, which used the so-called "Jaws of Life" to extricate the driver from the white car, trapped among twisted metal with the doors torn off and the airbags deployed.
"We had to use our technical equipment to open one of the cars to rescue one of the patients," confirmed a spokesperson for the firefighters to Univision.
The chief of Miami-Dade Fire Rescue, Rogelio Vandamas, clarified that there were "two critically injured patients, one of whom was transported by air rescue and the other by ground to a hospital in the area."
In total, six people received medical attention: four were assessed and released at the scene, and two were transported to hospitals.
Hours later, authorities confirmed that one of the hospitalized individuals did not survive; the other was airlifted to Jackson Memorial Hospital.
Ongoing research
The Traffic Homicide Unit of the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office has taken over the investigation to determine whether there was negligence or criminal liability.
In Florida, when a death results from a traffic accident, this specialized unit intervenes regardless of the driver's intent.
The police had not officially confirmed the identity of the deceased by the time the first reports were released; the identification of Carlos Blanco came solely from family and friends who spoke with Univision.
A relative who did not want to be identified asked the media to respect their pain. The intersection remained closed for several hours and was reopened on Friday afternoon.
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