Erika Roman 95.3: Owner of boat chair that caused DJ to crash may face charge
The owner of a boat chair that fell onto Florida's Turnpike and caused Erika Roman to lose control of her car has come forward, the Florida Highway Patrol said Wednesday.
Susan Jacobson | Sentinel Staff Writer May 14, 2009
Erika Roman (Power 95.3)
The owner of a boat chair that fell onto
Florida's Turnpike and caused Orlando radio personality Erika Roman to lose control of her car has come forward and likely will face a misdemeanor charge, the Florida Highway Patrol said Wednesday.
Timothy Debrecht, deputy fire chief in Osceola County, told the FHP that he was on his way to the Florida Keys with his family when the chair apparently fell off his boat. He contacted investigators May 3 after he saw news reports of the May 1 crash, which killed Erika Roman.
Debrecht, 43, who has worked for the fire-rescue department for nearly 20 years, told investigators he initially thought the chair had been stolen. He stopped at the FHP office in Lake Worth on his way back to
St. Cloud.
"He is cooperating," said Sgt. Jorge Delahoz, an FHP spokesman. "He is remorseful."
Debrecht was not in his office Wednesday afternoon. A message left at his home was not returned.
An Osceola County spokesman said Debrecht is not facing discipline at work, nor is the county investigating.
"It's something that happened when he was off the clock," spokesman Larry Krause said.
Debrecht will not be arrested. After FHP troopers finish their investigation, he likely will receive a notice to appear in court on a charge of failure to secure a load resulting in serious bodily injury or death, Delahoz said.
If convicted of that charge, Debrecht would be guilty of a second-degree misdemeanor punishable by up to 60 days in jail and a fine of up to $500. A more likely scenario, Delahoz said, would be probation and community service.
The investigation will examine Erika Roman's speed, whether she was distracted and why the boat chair fell off.
Christopher Johnson, 40, one of a dozen good Samaritans who tried to rescue Roman, said Wednesday that it was irresponsible not to have the chair adequately secured.
"Whenever you transport anything, you're supposed to tie it down because the wind will get it," said Johnson, a Haines City truck driver with 13 staples in his foot from cuts suffered in the rescue attempt. He said he needs surgery to remove another piece of glass.
"He [Debrecht] caused one family grief, and he caused me pain and anguish and grief because I've been out of work since the first."
Erika Roman's aunt Maria Roman said Debrecht did the right thing coming forward.
"Right now, there's just a lot of pain in this family," she said. "What's going to happen next, only God knows. Nothing is going to bring her back."
Erika Roman, 33, was driving to Miami to visit a brother she recently found when she swerved to avoid the chair, overcorrected, overturned several times and ended up in a canal in St. Lucie County, the FHP said. By the time she was pulled out, Roman had been in the water an estimated 12 minutes.
An FHP trooper performed CPR for about 20 minutes, but it was too late. Roman was pronounced dead at a Fort Pierce hospital.
Nearly 500 people turned out May 6 for a memorial service in her honor at Northland, A Church Distributed, in Longwood. She was a co-host of the Obie & Lil Shawn Show in the mornings on hip-hop station Power 95.3 FM.
Susan Jacobson can be reached at 407-540-5981 or sjacobson@ƒsorlandosentinel.com.
