Illegal Lane Change Ruled Cause Of I-75 Pileup

Florida Highway Patrol traffic investigators say an illegal lane change caused the nine-vehicle crash on Interstate 75 near State Road 60 Saturday, Aug. 3 that closed the interstate for three hours.

At 11:49 a.m., William Morton-Holcomb, 33, of Peoria, Ariz., was driving his Chevy Traverse south on I-75 in the outside lane, approaching State Road 60, when he changed to an inside lane, cutting off a semi track-trailer truck driven by Miroslav Emilov, 31, of Saraota.  

The right front of the truck hit the left rear section of Holcomb's Chevy, causing Holcomb to be pushed back into the outside lane where he sideswiped four other cars. 

One of the cars was propelled forward and collided with the rear of a Toyota Camry, driven by Asim Kumar, 32, of Irving, Texas.

In the meantime, the semi truck was propelled forward and struck a Honda Rav 4, drivien by James Lee, 68, of Seffner. Lee's car then struck another Toyota Rav 4, driven by Jeffery Brooks, 54, of Tobyuanna, Pa., and a GMC Savannah driven by Cid Baliquig, 27, of St. Petersburg. 

A Mitsubishi Dimante, driven by Marie Antonopoulos, 32 of Tampa, veered left to avoid a collision and struck a concrete barrier wall. 

Seven people were injured and transported to area hospitals with four listed as trauma alerts and two identified as critical but stable.

Holcomb was cited for improperly changing lanes.