Police arrested the driver who struck and killed a Firefighter/EMS Driver of the Delaware City (DE) Fire Company. Delaware State Troopers arrested 28 year old Joseph Taye of Bear (Delaware) this evening. The cops believe he was the driver of the BMW that hit 30-year-old FF/EMS Driver Michelle Smith.
Taye is expected to be charged with manslaughter, driving with a revoked license, and leaving the scene of a crash. Smith died in the Line of Duty at Christiana Hospital this morning morning. She was taken to Christiana in critical condition following the Saturday night crash and her condition worsened Sunday night.
She was treating a motorcycle driver on Route 13 around 2200 hours. Smith was caring for the biker when a 2004 BMW 760 sideswiped a police car, narrowly missing the a cop, and running over FF Smith and Reiss. Reiss remains hospitalized with serious injuries. As also previously mentioned, the cops say a car following the BMW stopped and let the BMW driver get inside, before speeding off.
God Bless Michelle, her family and anyone who had to see this happen. The driver of the car and whomever picked him up need to be prosecuted to the fullest extent possible. Want to bet there was alcohol involved?
Here is updated story and over 700 posts - it has been a trying time here for all of our personnel. http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081231/N... The alleged driver has an arrest record that goes back 10 years with the last arrest being made in Nov of 2007 for an accident with all too many similarities, that victim was not a fatality although she was severely injured - that case has not gone to trial yet (according to the victims mother in the posts)........ http://casesearch.courts.state.md.us/inquiry/inquiry-index.jsp one of the posters found his arrest record before the local news - so many hinky parts to the story it just makes me wonder what is wrong with our judicial system!