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<\/a>CASSELBERRY, Fla. \u2014<\/p>\nA Casselberry homeowner is raising questions about a police investigation after a driver crashed an SUV into a tree just feet from her house last weekend. <\/p>\n
“I went and looked outside, and sure as heck there was a car, and then my tree’s almost through the window,” said Sheila Long. <\/p>\n
The single-vehicle crash happened last Saturday near Long’s home along Lake Drive. The tree that the SUV hit ended up right outside her daughter Kallysta’s bedroom window. <\/p>\n
“I’m usually here on weekends. I’m not a big socializer, but the one weekend I’m not here, this happens. You can’t tell me God ain’t real for that,” Kallysta said. <\/p>\n
According to Long, the driver apologized repeatedly and told her he swerved to avoid a squirrel. She questions that explanation. <\/p>\n
“I didn’t hear any brakes. I didn’t hear any turning. If he was swerving to not hit a squirrel, wouldn’t there be marks or something?” Long said. <\/p>\n
She said she and her neighbors also smelled alcohol on him. <\/p>\n
“He was dazed, which that’s somewhat to be expected after a crash like that. But the smell of alcohol was very, very strong. I mean, I probably would have failed a breathalyzer after talking to him,” Long said. <\/p>\n
Casselberry police confirmed officers investigated the crash and issued the 58-year-old driver, whom WESH 2 is not identifying, a citation for careless driving. <\/p>\n
The department said officers did not pursue criminal charges because there were no witnesses who saw anyone driving the SUV. Long questioned that decision and said her neighbor witnessed the crash. <\/p>\n
“When we walked up on him, he had a seatbelt on, and he had the keys in the car. He was actually trying to start the car to drive away,” she said. <\/p>\n
When WESH 2 asked why officers did not investigate the crash as a possible DUI, considering Long and her neighbors’ concerns, a spokesperson said officers “did not believe there was sufficient evidence present to establish probable cause and therefore concluded the criminal investigation without making an arrest.” <\/p>\n
The department said the driver admitted he was behind the wheel during the crash investigation. However, because of Florida law, that admission could be used to issue a traffic citation but not to support criminal charges, according to the spokesperson. <\/p>\n
Long said she’s speaking out because she hopes another family doesn’t experience a similar close call. <\/p>\n
“That’s what I’m trying to do \u2014 is prevent this from happening to somebody else, to try to save someone else’s life, because this is not OK,” Long said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Casselberry woman questions police investigation after driver crashes into tree near her home CASSELBERRY, Fla. \u2014 A Casselberry…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":351889,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[220,1776,11853,2675,143894,320,267,1224,139,141,140,8930,143893,18692,9644,15179,918,23774],"class_list":["post-351888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-car","tag-crash","tag-department","tag-driver","tag-driver-crash","tag-home","tag-neighbor","tag-officer","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-police-investigation","tag-sheila-long","tag-spokesperson","tag-suv","tag-tree","tag-wesh","tag-window"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351888","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=351888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}