accident – Page 7 – West Boca News

Accident Follow-Up: Hit-and-Run Driver Not Charged Yet?

Last month we reported on an accident where three pedestrians were hit by a car on 441, northbound near West Boca Medical center.
We’ve been trying to follow up on this case but PBSO was not helpful initially. Over a month later we finally got a few records. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to give us a lead so we could find out more.
For starters we’ve learned the names of the individuals involved in the accident. One of the pedestrians hit was Victor Carneiro Brito, who is 18 years old and reportedly lives in the Boca Entrada apartments. The other two pedestrians, both male, are under 18 so we are not including their names in this story. One is a student in one of the middle schools in West Boca.
We’ve also learned that the alleged driver is Brett Knowles (30), of Boca Isles. Mr. Knowles appears to be a 2002 graduate of Olympic Heights High School, and he may work as a barber.

Mr. Knowles has a substantial history in the Palm Beach County courts. This is not a typo – he has 41 cases in the system. Some of them are multiple charges from one incident, but that’s still a lot.
Here’s a mugshot from a 2013 arrest for driving with a suspended license:

The court record indicates he got 4 days in jail for that one. He had a similar incident in 2012 and got 10 days in jail, which may have been longer because he failed to show up for a court date. Oddly the 2013 incident was charged as a first offense even though it obviously was at least the second offense.
Mr. Knowles faced felony drug charges in 2008 and 2010. On the 2008 case he was sentenced to 10 days in jail and on the 2010 cases (2 incidents) he got 6 months.
Update: It occurred to us we should check Broward. Mr. Knowles had an incident there in August of 2013. It was a combination of drug possession, a traffic ticket, and criminal driving with a suspended license.
In addition to those he’s had a few misdemeanors and numerous traffic tickets. He also demonstrated questionable judgment by posting this on his Facebook page:

We spoke with a family member of one of the pedestrians. PBSO informed the family that Mr. Knowles was driving with a suspended license, that police were tipped as to the license plate and met him at his home, where he admitted being the driver.
Here’s where it gets interesting: From the court records database, no charges have been filed against Mr. Knowles yet, not even a traffic ticket. A deputy told the family that Mr. Knowles would be in jail within a few days. It’s been over five weeks and he is still free with no charges pending from the incident.
Update – PBSO’s Theresa Barbera responded:

This investigation is still active and ongoing. Once completed the state attorneys office will review. These types of investigations take days, weeks and sometimes months.

We tried to reach Mr. Knowles but he hung up on us. To be fair, that’s probably a good decision on his part.
All three pedestrians were hurt, ranging from head injuries and broken bones to one undergoing surgery. Both to protect their privacy and because we don’t have enough information, we won’t go into more detail on the extent of the injuries.
No one likes to think too much about the possibility of being involved in a car accident, but it is important to remember that if you are caught up in a collision that you suspect was not your fault, you might want to consider filing a lawsuit.
Filing a personal injury lawsuit can be an expensive process, but there are a variety of methods to help you cover the financial costs.
Nova Legal Funding provides lawsuit loans that can help you to get a personal injury lawsuit off the ground. For more information go to fundmylawsuitnow.com.
We still hope to get more information on this case. If any of our readers can provide us with more or put us in touch with anyone involved, please let us know. We can be reached at [email protected].

Accident on 441 at Sandalfoot

A reader reports another accident today on 441 in front of Sandalfoot Square. It appears to be involve two-cars. From the damage we see in the photos it may have been a head-on or frontal-offset collision.

Update from a reader:

I was actually there. Someone cut a woman off she slammed on her brakes I then slammed on my brakes and so on and some guy hit a car behind me and left the scene. The grey car there had to pull to the side to get out of the road. The cars behind him were totaled and leaking gas.

Car Split in Two on Palmetto Park Road

Several readers reported to us about a devastating car wreck on Palmetto Park Road near the Turnpike and Boca Rio Road. A video of the scene is at bottom.

You can see the two pieces of the car in the shot below:

From what our readers tell us, the car was on the eastbound side and hit a tree just west of the Turnpike. Traffic was backed up westbound past Powerline when we checked around 5:30 pm. Red means traffic is slow or stopped.
Update from a reader:

The vehicle was driving eastbound at rapid rate of speed and appears to have been cut off by a car merging left from the middle lane yielding to a large yellow arrow directing 3 lanes of traffic down to one lane.
From the short deep skid marks the vehicle veered left and left the roadway, hit the curb, then became airborne with the drivers side door colliding with the large tree (which was was hit with so much force it split the tree in half and caused th tree to uproot). The force caused the car to stress split completely in half – not jaws of life.
I doubt the driver survived the crash even with a seatbelt or all airbags that were deployed. Very sad. And yes I am a Crash Investigator. It might be a good idea for this person to seek legal advice, personal injury attorneys usually provide useful information in times like these.

Further update from another reader:

My step dad actually saw the entire accident happen and he pulled over and got out of his car and ran to help the boy he was gushing blood from the side of his neck closer to the back and my step father along with a few brave others managed to stop the bleeding until the ambulance arrived the kid was in his 20s and was conscious and talking when he was taken away ….

We looked at traffic again about 20 minutes before publishing this article and it had gotten better on Palmetto but there were still problems. We also saw problems westbound on Glades approaching the Turnpike, and southbound on I-95 on both sides of Palmetto Park Road.

The car was cut into two pieces as part of the rescue effort. Here are a few more reader photos of the scene, with the video at the bottom of the page.

We have not seen any information from Fire Rescue or PBSO so we do not have any more details at this time.

Boca High Grad Gets Second "DUI Causing Injury"

Boca High graduate Travis Streitz (above, 29) was arrested Thursday accused of a DUI involving “serious bodily injury to another.” Back in 2006 Streitz had another incident where he was charged with “DUI causing injury to person or property.” His probation did not go well and he was sentenced to 30 days in jail.
Mr. Streitz has been mostly clean since then, with a few minor traffic tickets, but he’s now being held on $3000 bond on the new charge. Court records this relates to an accident on August 2nd. We did report on a serious accident that day at Yamato and 441, but can’t be sure if they’re related.

Update: A source tells us the black car in the picture belongs to Mr. Streitz.
Mr. Streitz’ reported address is in the gated Paseo community south of Glades between Powerline and St. Andrews.

Accident at Lyons and Clint Moore

A reader just reported to us that there’s an accident at Lyons and Clint Moore. From the photo above it looks like the collision was fairly minor and hopefully there are no serious injuries. Update: Additional reader photo added at bottom.
However, it does appear to be causing traffic problems at the intersection, per Google Maps:

We recommend avoiding the intersection for at least half an hour.
From the photo it looks like a Mercedes S Class met with a Lexus RX, and we think we see airbag deployment on the Lexus passenger side.
Update: Another reader sent us a shot from a different angle.