{"id":10439,"date":"2025-10-19T00:46:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-19T00:46:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/10439\/"},"modified":"2025-10-19T00:46:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-19T00:46:14","slug":"man-arrested-for-dui-manslaughter-after-deadly-crash-involving-pedestrian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/10439\/","title":{"rendered":"Man Arrested for DUI Manslaughter after Deadly Crash Involving Pedestrian"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/News-Release-Header-NEW-2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1640\" height=\"450\" title=\"\" role=\"img\"\/><\/p>\n<p>CAPE CORAL, Fla. \u2014 On Sunday, September 28, 2025, just before 9 PM, officers with the Cape Coral Police Department responded to a crash involving a vehicle and a pedestrian at Tower Drive and Santa Rosa Court, Cape Coral, Florida.<\/p>\n<p>Officers arrived and found a pedestrian who did not appear to be breathing but had a faint pulse.\u00a0The pedestrian required immediate medical treatment and was transported to Gulf Coast Hospital as a Trauma Alert.\u00a0The pedestrian was pronounced deceased upon arrival at 9:26 PM.<\/p>\n<p>Traffic Homicide Investigators (THIs) were called to the scene, and determined the vehicle was driving on Tower Drive approaching Santa Rosa Court and struck a pedestrian who was walking her dog west on Tower Drive in the eastbound lane. The vehicle involved, a white Dodge work van, was still on scene. A THI observed an open Bud Light aluminum bottle in the center cup holder through the open driver\u2019s door.<\/p>\n<p>A witness with the victim at the time said they were walking with a flashlight. That witness identified the vehicle that struck the victim and pointed out the driver. The witness said she could smell alcohol on the driver\u2019s breath.<\/p>\n<p>The driver was identified as Rodrigo\u00a0Coutinho Pereira (DOB 10\/21\/1997). The THIs could smell alcohol on his breath and noticed he had slurred speech.<\/p>\n<p>Officers then informed Pereira that they were changing hats from a crash investigation to a DUI investigation.\u00a0Pereira agreed to participate in Standard Field Sobriety Evaluations. Based on the investigation, Pereira was placed under arrest for DUI at 10:54 PM.\u00a0Pereira refused to provide a breath sample.<\/p>\n<p>The investigation also determined Pereira\u2019s license was suspended for DUI effective May 4, 2025. Therefore, he is not authorized to operate a vehicle.\u00a0Pereira caused an estimated $1500 in damage to the van he was in, which he does not own.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Rodrigo\u00a0Coutinho Pereira (DOB 10\/21\/1997) was taken to the Lee County Jail on the following charges:<br \/>-1 count of DUI\u00a0<br \/>-1 count of DUI Property Damage\u00a0<br \/>-1 count of \u00a0DUI Manslaughter<br \/>-1 count of Driving While License Suspended (Causing Death or Serious Injury)<\/p>\n<p>This is the 14th\u00a0traffic fatality in 2025. Three have been DUI-related.<\/p>\n<p>Prior years:<br \/>2024: 23 Traffic fatalities, 7 DUI-related\u00a0<br \/>2023: 20 Traffic fatalities, 4 DUI-related\u00a0<br \/>2022: 13 Traffic fatalities, 3 DUI-related\u00a0<br \/>2021: 12 Traffic fatalities, 5 DUI-related<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/NR-Mugshot-Template-18-1.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"uag-image-14296\" width=\"1640\" height=\"450\" title=\"NR Mugshot Template (18)\" role=\"img\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CAPE CORAL, Fla. \u2014 On Sunday, September 28, 2025, just before 9 PM, officers with the Cape Coral&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2551,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210],"class_list":["post-10439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10439\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}