Driver faces vehicular homicide charges after drunken crash on turnpike
Rogier Silva Mendez told the Florida Highway Patrol that he and a group of friends were heading to his Deerfield Beach home after visiting a bar in Miami.
Instead, Silva Mendez was on the wrong highway, in the wrong county and swerved in the wrong direction before the November 2023 crash that killed an unidentified passenger in the pickup, authorities said when they arrested him on criminal charges this month.
Silva Mendez, 25, of Pompano Beach, was taken into custody Wednesday, Feb. 25, on one count each of DUI manslaughter and vehicular homicide. Circuit Judge Donald Hafele set Silva Mendez’s bail at $200,000 and ordered him to remain under house arrest upon his release from county jail. Jail records show he remained in custody as of Friday, Feb. 27.
The Palm Beach County Public Defender’s Office represented him in court, court records show. As a matter of policy, the office does not comment on active cases.
The FHP arrest report did not name the deceased. It also did not specify the make and model of the vehicle involved, other than describing Silva Mendez’s vehicle as a two-door truck.
Investigators reported that he was driving north on the Florida Turnpike near Atlantic Avenue in the suburb of Delray Beach around 4:20 a.m. on Nov. 26, 2023, when he attempted to make a U-turn and head south in the northbound lane.
As Silva Mendez tried to make a U-turn, his pickup truck collided with another vehicle, sending both men onto the grassy shoulder of the highway. Silva Mendez and two passengers were treated at Delray Medical Center for varying degrees of injuries. Nearly a week later, a passenger died.
Silva Mendez was interviewed days after the accident when he returned to the hospital for follow-up treatment. Medical records show he was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the crash.
He reportedly told investigators that two of his friends met him at a bar in Miami, where they stayed until about 2 a.m. Silva Mendes reportedly said they each drank three to four glasses of red wine.
The group reportedly planned to go to a friend’s house in Deerfield Beach, but Silva Mendez mistakenly took the toll road instead of Interstate 95. He described getting lost multiple times due to his unfamiliarity with the area.
Silva Mendez told investigators he didn’t know how the group ended up in Palm Beach County and said he didn’t remember trying to make a U-turn on the highway. Tests showed Silva Mendez’s blood-alcohol level exceeded the state’s intoxication threshold.
Julius Whigham II covers northern Palm Beach County and public safety for The Palm Beach Post. You can contact him at jwhigham@pbpost.com and follow him on X (formerly Twitter): @JuliusWhigham. Help support our work: Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared in The Palm Beach Post: Pompano man charged in fatal wrong-way tollway crash
