A Chevrolet Corvette disappeared into its own tire smoke while its driver spun donuts in a Florida intersection Monday morning. Seconds later, another driver was headed toward a house.
The Florida Highway Patrol told FOX 35 Orlando that 20-year-old Malakih Battle lost control of the Corvette while doing donuts in Longwood. A woman driving a Honda Civic entered the intersection, collided with the Corvette and went off the roadway before hitting a nearby home.
Cellphone video shows the Corvette circling through a dense cloud of tire smoke before the crash. The Honda then leaves the roadway and strikes the house near its front entrance, damaging a pillar and brickwork.
The margin inside the house was small. Homeowner Nicole Mike told FOX 35 that her 6-year-old son had been sitting on a couch only feet from where the Honda struck.
Through The Smoke
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The Honda driver told troopers the Corvette was doing donuts as she tried to pass through the intersection, according to FOX 35.
Krista Bridges, who recorded the cellphone video, compared the tire smoke to a cloud dropping into the roadway.
“It was like a cloud had dropped down from the sky,” Bridges told the station.
The footage shows the Corvette becoming difficult to see inside the smoke as it continues circling. Moments later, the Honda and Corvette collide.
The Honda crosses the roadside and hits Mike’s home. Mike told FOX 35 that she awoke to the crash and found smoke coming into the house.
Too Close
Mike said her son had been sitting on a couch near the front of the house. She believed a slight change in the Honda’s direction kept it from traveling more directly toward the doorway.
It was also not the first vehicle to end up on the property. Mike told FOX 35 this was the third time this year a vehicle had crashed onto her property, but the first time one had actually hit the house.
The Charge
Seminole County Sheriff’s Office booking records show Battle was booked Sept. 7 by Florida Highway Patrol-Orlando on a first-offense reckless-driving charge.
Under Florida law, reckless driving means operating a vehicle with willful or wanton disregard for the safety of people or property.
The booking record lists Battle under Section 316.192(1)(a), the basic reckless-driving provision. Florida law separately provides a more serious offense when reckless driving causes injury or property damage, but Battle’s booking entry does not list that subsection.
All suspects are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.