A man is facing a DUI manslaughter charge after he veered off a Tampa road Tuesday evening and fatally struck a woman waiting at a bus stop, troopers said.
Benny Wallace, 33, of Tampa was driving a Chevy sedan south on North 56th Street about 7:40 p.m. when he lost control and veered off the road near Pitch Pine Circle, struck a culvert, became airborne and hit a woman sitting at a bus stop, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.
The 49-year-old Tampa woman waiting for the bus died from her injuries at a local hospital. The Highway Patrol did not release her name, and her name was redacted in an arrest report provided by an agency spokesperson.
Benny Wallace, 33, of Tampa is seen in a Hillsborough County booking photo taken after his arrest Tuesday on charges of DUI manslaughter and refusal to submit to testing
According to the report, Wallace told troopers he was coming from his mother’s house when another vehicle hit his car and pushed it off the roadway, but investigators did not see any damage on the Chevy consistent with that account. Wallace smelled of alcohol and he was unable to stand without swaying, the report states.
Wallace refused to do field sobriety exercises or give blood or breath samples. Investigators got a warrant for a blood sample and a nurse at St. Joseph’s Hospital took the sample shortly before midnight. The results were not included in the report.
Wallace was also charged with refusing to submit to testing. He was being held Wednesday without bond in Hillsborough’s Orient Road Jail.