Man arrested in DUI death of construction worker in Miami Gardens
MIAMI GARDENS - A 53-year-old man has been arrested in the DUI death of a construction worker on a street in Miami Gardens in November, Miami Gardens Police said.
Yves Erold Altieri is facing charges of vehicular homicide and DUI manslaughter, and he was taken to Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center for processing Tuesday. Eduardo Meridas Llanas, 31, died in the crash.
Altieri was involved in a crash shortly earlier.
What happened
At 8:26 p.m. Nov. 18, Altieri was going southbound on Northwest 27th Avenue, approaching Northwest 183rd Street. A vehicle was stopped southbound on Northwest 27th at a light and Altieri failed to stop and struck the vehicle at the light, police said.
Police attempted to pull him over but he fled the scene, going southbound on Northwest 27th.
The police report said he was "driving erratically at a high rate of speed, changing lanes aggressive, swerving between vehicles and forcing other drivers to brave abruptly to avoid collisions."
Altieri then struck several construction cones. A construction vehicle was stopped ahead of the cones with emergency lights flashing, according to the police report.
Llanas had just arrived and pulled into the coned-off area. He had unbuckled to leave the vehicle but he was struck by Altieri, police said.
"The impact caused Mr. Llanes to strike his head inside the vehicle and then be thrown into the front passenger seat, landing on the lap of the front-seat passenger," according to the arrest report.
The passenger and Altier were taken to Aventura Hospital.
Two other construction workers in the front of Llanes' vehicle jumped to the sidewalk area to avoid being struck.
Llanas was airlifted to Aventura Hospital, where he later died.
Blood alcohol level nearly 4 times above legal limit
Altieri was identified as the driver of the traffic crash, and toxicology results revealed that at the time of the incident, Alteri's blood alcohol concentration was 0.305. The legal limit in Florida is 0.08.
Altieri told investigators he came from his cousin's house in Margate for a birthday party, where he told them he consumed approximately four Corona beers and then left to go take his mother to a Walmart.
Altieri said he was driving alone and he didn't see the construction workers until it was too late and couldn't brake in time. Altiere said he didn't remember being involved in the first crash.
