SUMTER COUNTY, Fla. – A 17-year-old boy was arrested after fleeing from a fatal crash that shut down Interstate 75 in Sumter County, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.
The crash happened Monday around 2:50 p.m. near mile marker 332, north of Wildwood exit.
According to the FHP, the teen was driving a Dodge Challenger south on I-75 “recklessly and at a high rate of speed.” The driver was passing slower traffic and tried to avoid a collision, entering the outside shoulder and hitting a tree before the vehicle erupted in flames, troopers said.
The teen then got out of the car, removed the license plate and ran away from the wreck, troopers say. They later found him in a chicken coop nearby, according to an FHP crash report.
Four passengers — ages 13, 15, 16 and 17— in the vehicle, including the driver, were injured.
The 16-year-old, an Inverness boy, was killed in the wreck, the FHP said.
The driver, identified as Dylan Austin Richards, was arrested and faces charges of vehicular homicide and leaving the scene of a crash involving death.