An Uber driver who was involved in a brutal multi-fuel accident involving a fuel truck in October on I-95 in Delray Beach died Monday, relatives confirmed.
Carlos Molina, 62, died Monday at the Ryder Trauma Center of respiratory failure, relatives told WPTV-TV, an NBC affiliate channel in Palm Beach. He had been transported from Delray Medical Center following suffering second and third degree burns on the accident that occurred on October 25 and generated a large-scale fire.
The accident involved five vehicles, including the truck carrying fuel, and left five injured, three of them seriously.
The crash occurred around 1:15 p.m. and completely brought the northern stretch of I-95 to a standstill. According to authorities, two passenger cars and a fuel tanker truck were traveling northbound at exit 52 near Atlantic Avenue in the Delray Beach area.
The Florida Highway Patrol reported that one of the vehicles entered the truck’s travel lane causing the collision.
Carlos Caviedes, who witnessed what happened, recounted at the time. “He crashed into the other cars, flipped over and exploded right there. From here two boys were seen getting out of the car and right there it caught fire (…) It caught fire and that was horrible, it caught fire. A lot of smoke and a lot of heat, the heat reached here”.
“It was upside down and it started to make flames, apparently the one who was driving was able to run away and then explosion and explosion (…) People who came from the north to the south passed through the cloud of smoke,” recalls Alejandra Caviedes, who was a witness from what has occured.
Emergency units managed to control the fire, but witnesses who saw it happen up close say it might have been worse.
Firefighter Brian Aparicio, 26, was injured in the crash. Brian and his girlfriend Su Hninyi were in the Uber heading to a cruise port when the tanker truck overturned and caught fire.
