MIAMI BEACH, FLA. (WSVN) - Surveillance video captured an alleged drunk driver crashing into a delivery driver who had stopped to make a delivery at a restaurant in Miami Beach.
The crash happened along the 6700 block of Collins Avenue in North Beach at around 7 a.m. on Jan. 4.
The video shows 30-year-old Marlon Menendez Gomez making a delivery when he was blindsided by a gray Hyundai. The vehicle ended up crashing into the back of Gomez’s delivery truck.
“He’s lucky to be alive,” Miami Beach Police spokesperson Ernesto Rodriguez said. “You see this vehicle just barreling down Collins Avenue and slamming into the back of that vehicle just within a fraction of a second from when he moved out of the way.”
According to police, Violet Carter, the driver behind the wheel, was drunk and had alcohol in the Hyundai when she plowed into Gomez.
Rafael Delorve works as a chef at Norman’s, a longtime restaurant and bar near the scene.
Security footage from a different angle showed the crash and Delorve and other Norman’s employees running to the scene.
“I came out, and I hear him screaming on the floor,” Delorve said. “‘Help! Help! Please call 911.'”
In the arrest report, police described what Gomez said he saw before officers arrived on the scene.
“He observed the arrestee jump out of the vehicle from the driver’s side door,” police wrote. “[He] also said that he saw her grab a bottle of vodka and another unknown bottle and place them underneath the passenger side seat.”
Investigators added that they recovered two bottles of alcohol from Carter’s vehicle.
“She could not move because she looked like a drunk,” Delorve said.
“This isn’t her first go-around for a DUI-related arrest,” Rodriguez said. “She previously has been arrested on a DUI and refused to submit to a breath test.”
Carter was arrested and charged with DUI and DUI damage to property, but the man who makes deliveries for a living is now unable to do his job.
“There’s really no excuse for it with Uber and Lyft,” Rodriguez said. “Again, this is a Saturday morning — seven o’clock in the morning. People need to know their limits. You need to know when it’s last call.”
7News spoke to Gomez’s family, who said the 30-year-old is home with injuries to his leg. His lawyer said he is in no condition to give a TV interview.
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