Advertisement

Illness — not alcohol or drugs — may have contributed to fatal wrong-way crash

 
Two men died Feb. 12 in what the Florida Highway Patrol called a wrong-way crash on Interstate 275 in Tampa. Toxicology tests reveal that the wrong-way driver who FHP said caused the crash, Larry Thompson, 47, had no alcohol in his system at the time. Thompson’s family believe a mass found on his brain that was causing headaches and memory loss may be to blame. The crash also killed Gene Fischer, 65, a security guard on his way to work. [Florida Highway Patrol]
Two men died Feb. 12 in what the Florida Highway Patrol called a wrong-way crash on Interstate 275 in Tampa. Toxicology tests reveal that the wrong-way driver who FHP said caused the crash, Larry Thompson, 47, had no alcohol in his system at the time. Thompson’s family believe a mass found on his brain that was causing headaches and memory loss may be to blame. The crash also killed Gene Fischer, 65, a security guard on his way to work. [Florida Highway Patrol]
Published April 26, 2016

TAMPA — When Larry Thompson drove the wrong way up an interstate exit ramp more than two months ago and collided head-on with a sport-utility vehicle, he had no alcohol in his system and just one drug: caffeine.

The toxicology results from his autopsy shed no new light on why Thompson, a 47-year-old father of six, tried to drive north onto Interstate 275 using the southbound downtown exit ramp on the morning of Feb. 12. The violent wrong-way collision killed Thompson and the other driver, Gene Fischer, 65, a security guard on his way to work.

The lack of alcohol or drugs makes this wrong-way crash an outlier, said Florida Highway Patrol Sgt. Steve Gaskins. He said the "vast majority" of wrong-way incidents involve a driver who is under the influence of alcohol or drugs — or both.

Chris Thompson, the brother of the wrong-way driver, offered a clue as to what could have caused the crash: He said Larry Thompson suffered from headaches and memory loss before the crash and was being treated for a mass found on his brain.

"For him to have memory loss and not know what happened the day before," Chris Thompson said, "he knew something was wrong."

FHP hasn't yet finished the accident report, Gaskins said. However, investigators haven't ruled out a medical episode as a factor in Larry Thompson's erratic driving that morning.

Dr. Phoutthasone Thirakul, an associate medical examiner for Hillsborough County, said a brain tumor could cause a seizure or other medical issues, depending on where it's located on the brain. It's possible Larry Thompson was taking medication for the tumor that wasn't picked up by the toxicology test, she said.

But Thirakul didn't see any masses on Larry Thompson's brain when she performed an autopsy, she said, but that doesn't mean one wasn't there.

"If it was large, I would have seen it," she said. "It if was small and focused, I would not have been able to pick it up."

Larry Thompson's son didn't mention a brain tumor when contacted by a medical examiner investigator seeking information on his father's medical history, Thirakul said.

"It would have been helpful for me to know whether he did have a tumor, how large it was and what imaging studies were done," she said. "In cases like this, we always wonder why they were driving erratically.

"His cause and manner of death wouldn't have changed but for the families to understand his behavior on the road, I can understand why they would want answers to that."

Just before the collision, FHP said Larry Thompson drove a silver Acura TL up the Howard Avenue exit ramp, trying to go north on southbound I-275. The sedan caused a Road Ranger who was getting off the exit ramp to swerve out of the way.

From the Howard exit ramp, there's no way Thompson could have ended up at the site of the crash without getting off the interstate and then getting back on again in the wrong direction, a Florida Department of Transportation official said at the time.

Keep up with Tampa Bay’s top headlines

Keep up with Tampa Bay’s top headlines

Subscribe to our free DayStarter newsletter

We’ll deliver the latest news and information you need to know every morning.

You’re all signed up!

Want more of our free, weekly newsletters in your inbox? Let’s get started.

Explore all your options

Neither Larry Thompson nor Fischer were wearing seatbelts at the time of the collision, the FHP said. Both were fathers and had served in the Air Force.

Chris Thompson said his brother, a Tampa resident since the 1990s and an administrator with the 6th Medical Group at MacDill Air Force Base, was in the downtown area early that morning to help a doctor at an off-base medical clinic with computer problems.

"He was going there early, before work, to do him a favor," Chris Thompson said.

There have been 120 wrong-way driver arrests in the Tampa Bay area since April 2014 and all but three involved alcohol, according to an FDOT database. The driver who slammed into Hillsborough sheriff's Deputy John Kotfila Jr.'s patrol car on the Lee Roy Selmon Expressway on March 12 was drunk, according to the Sheriff's Office. Both men died.

But there is precedent for a medical episode to contribute to wrong-way driving incident. In January 2015, troopers stopped an 80-year-old Ocala woman headed north in the southbound lanes of I-275 on the Sunshine Skyway bridge, according to the FDOT database. She suffered an undisclosed medical emergency and was taken to a St. Petersburg hospital.

Gina Fischer said the news that the driver who crashed into her brother Gene wasn't drinking or using drugs at the time doesn't really change anything for her.

"I wouldn't have been angry anyway because you can't turn it around," she said. "It's a terrible loss of life on both sides and to find out he was sick, that's just another blow. I guess it's good in a way, but nothing changes if he was drunk or sick or whatever.

"If nothing else, maybe it gives his family some consolation."

Contact Tony Marrero at tmarrero@tampabay.com or (813) 226-3374. Follow @tmarrerotimes.