A speeding drunk driving suspect from Lady Lake was apprehended in a pasture after a he fled on foot from the scene of a fatal accident.
Robert Brandon Van Zant, 31, at about 2:30 p.m. Sunday had been driving a Ford F-150 pickup “at a high rate of speed” and passing other traffic on the shoulder of North Carl G. Rose Highway in Citrus County when he merged back into traffic and collided with the rear of a Honda Accord, which was also traveling southbound, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.
The impact propelled the Honda Accord across the roadway where it first struck a bridge rail and then collided with a second Ford F-150, which was traveling northbound.
The driver of the Honda Accord, a 62-year-old Lecanto man, was transported to an area hospital where he died of injuries suffered in the crash.
Van Zant fled to a nearby gas station where he ditched his pickup and ran to into a pasture where he was apprehended by Citrus County sheriff’s deputies.
Van Zant is facing charges of DUI manslaughter, vehicular homicide, leaving the scene of an accident with death, leaving the scene of an accident with injures and driving while license suspended with death.
The driver of the second F-150, a 42-year-old Beverly Hills man, escaped with minor injuries.
