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Deputies make arrest in June hit-and-run accident in Safety Harbor

 
Published Nov. 1, 2012

SAFETY HARBOR — Authorities used DNA technology to track down and arrest a man they say fled from a seven-vehicle accident in June.

Saeed Ali Williams, 23, of 1127 Marshall St. in Clearwater, was arrested Wednesday and charged with leaving the scene of an accident with injuries, aggravated fleeing and eluding, and reckless driving resulting in injury.

The accident occurred just before midnight June 1 at the intersection of McMullen-Booth Road and Enterprise Road in Safety Harbor.

According to the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office, a deputy on patrol saw a white BMW traveling westbound on Curlew Road make an illegal U-turn. The deputy tried to stop the car, but the driver took off, according to reports.

The deputy did not pursue the BMW, the Sheriff's Office said, but the BMW ran at least two red lights before causing a seven-vehicle crash at McMullen-Booth and Enterprise.

The BMW driver ran from the scene and was not caught, according to reports. Several drivers involved in the crash were injured, none seriously, but many of the vehicles were heavily damaged.

Sheriff's investigators obtained a DNA sample from the airbag inside the BMW and eventually were able to match it to Williams, according to the Sheriff's Office.

On Wednesday they found Williams in the Pinellas County Jail, where he is incarcerated on unrelated drug charges.