Roads-Traffic – Page 29 – West Boca News

Serious DUI Accident on Glades Sunday

Anthony L. Neterer (38) was arrested late Sunday night after what one witness described as a “horrific crash scene” on Glades near its intersection with Jog/Powerline Road. The probable cause affidavit indicates the accident occurred east of the intersection, at or near the Boca West entrance.
The witness, AJ, wrote as follows:

A pickup rammed a sedan at a traffic light (not sure if it was at boca west or Powerline) and a man was lying face down in the middle of the street and wasn’t moving. My girlfriend and I assumed he was dead, but hopefully he was just unconscious.
It was close to 8:30 pm Sunday 3/9 …. I’m glad he was looking at his iPad when we passed. It must have just happened because the sheriffs weren’t there yet but several cars had stopped already or we would have stopped to help. There was glass everywhere.

Per the probable cause affidavit for the Neterer arrest, he was not actually arrested until after 11 pm.
The arresting officer provides some details in the affidavit:

Neterer refused all field sobriety tests as well as the breath test. This is consistent with what most DUI attorneys would recommend to anyone arrested for even a minor DUI in Florida, and we remind our readers that arrestees are innocent until proven guilty.
Notably absent from the probable cause affidavit is any mention of injury. This may create problems for the prosecution later in the case, but probably not.
We do see that Mr. Neterer had a previous DUI arrest in July of 2010. He was represented by West Boca attorney Tyler Harding, and pled guilty to a DUI in January of 2011. He was sentenced to probation and paid over $2500 in fines and fees.

West Boca News did speak with one person who knows Neterer, describing him as quiet and friendly. He appears to work for an area car dealer and one customer said he provided outstanding service.
We are still working on this story and hope to have an update within two weeks.

Accident or House Fire at Palmetto and 441?

Reader Edison Paul Puebla sent us the above picture of an apparent accident scene or house fire at or near Palmetto and 441. We are seeing some indication of slow traffic westbound on Palmetto just east of the intersection.
Update: Another reader pic from Bonnie Finkelstein DiCostanzo

Walmart Truck Accident on Florida Turnpike

At approximately 11:30 am the Florida Turnpike was jammed going northbound at the Boynton/Lake Worth toll plaza. A Walmart truck appears to have had an accident with a passenger car. Florida Highway Patrol blocked the SunPass lanes, forcing all traffic through the regular gates.

Fortunately the damage appeared relatively minor, considering what can happen when 80,000 pound trucks collide with 3500 pound cars. The sedan driver was still in the car.

Venezuela Demonstration in West Boca

This afternoon dozens of West Boca residents gathered on the southwest corner of 441 and Glades in a demonstration related to the current unrest in Venezuela.

Large demonstrations began in Miami roughly four days ago, covered yesterday by NBC Miami. Certain areas of South Florida are known for having large Venezuelan populations, especially Weston (jokingly referred to as Westonzuela). Boca Raton is better known for its large Jewish population. West Boca has prominent Brazilian and Colombian communities. Apparently Venezuelans are growing here, as shown by today’s demonstration. However, it’s too soon to call it Bocazuela.

We talked to several of them. This demonstration was led by students, both from the local high schools (one mentioned Spanish River) as well as area colleges including FAU. They were emphatic about the government murdering and raping people as well as the lack of press freedom. A few noted that they enjoy much greater freedom here in the US, as evidenced by today’s protest.

We asked why they were doing this in West Boca, and why now. The timing results from the protests in Miami and recent events in Venezuela. And they’re doing this in West Boca because it’s difficult for many of them to get to Miami, and because they feel it’s important to spread the word to a larger audience. A larger demonstration will take place tomorrow (Tuesday) at the FAU main entrance at 4 pm.

Several seemed unaware who their congressman was. Congressman Ted Deutch lives roughly two miles away, near West Boca High. Having heard the name, one young man indicated he was involved with some kind of student caucus connected with Deutch. He hadn’t thought to contact the congressman but said he would reach out to him now.

It will be interesting to see if Deutch says or does anything. A search of the Deutch page on house.gov reveals zero results about “Maduro” (Nicolas Maduro is the current leader of Venezuela), zero about “Chavez” (Hugo Chavez was the previous leader) and nothing meaningful about “Venezuela.” Deutch is known for being staunchly pro-Israel but it’s unclear if he has any guiding principles to his foreign policy views or how they might apply to what’s going on in Venezuela now.

The Palm Beach Sheriff had a noticeable presence with three deputies. They told us they noticed the gathering during a routine patrol and were not sent because of any calls. They expressed their support for the right of citizens to demonstrate and were focused on making sure they were able to do so in a peaceful fashion. The deputies kept their distance and were polite.

We were alerted to the event around 4 pm. The photos were taken by this article’s author before 5 pm. We confirmed that the demonstration was effectively over at 6:15 pm when another member of our team drove by.

Upcoming Meetings: Chamber and Community Council

The West Boca Chamber has a new chair, Allen Bornstein. The group has a new Executive Director and will have a breakfast meeting on Tuesday, February 11th at Boca Greens, 7:30 am to 9 am. It’s $20 if you pre-register. We hope to have more information soon on the new leadership.

Update from the Chamber: “Guest Speaker will be Oreo Hernandez, Sr. Sales Executive for the Miami Marlins. He is a King of Networking, Leader of Leads Groups and Captain of Chamber business. He will be talking about his 12 years of success by giving up cold calling.”

And the West Boca Community Council will meet at 7:30 pm at Boca Lago. It’s an “open microphone” to:

Discuss our Traffic Issues, Your Issues, OUR Issues!
Plus P.B.C. Water Utilities will be at the meeting to speak about reclaimed water coming to West Boca.

It’s ~~not listed~~ is now listed on their website ~~but~~ and we got an e-mail, it’s on their Facebook page. and the second Tuesday is their usual meeting.