Wednesday morning on Florida Avenue, Eli Media heard the unmistakable sound of racing engines as he drove up the street.
“They were definitely accelerating because you can hear that exhaust from far away,” said Medina, who works at a nearby car dealership.
“I’m a car guy,” said Media.
He said he instantly starting looking for the source of the noise he was hearing.
What he saw next angered him.
“I saw the blue car initially and then I saw there was another car, a white car, and they were obviously messing around with each other,” said Medina.
Then the cars swerved to avoid slower traffic.
“I saw the blue car switch lanes, get around the white car. He ran up on traffic, jerked the wheel to the left and when he did that he lost control, rear wheel drive car, shot across traffic and then unfortunately, into the black car,” he said.
Tampa police say the blue car was driven by Michael Heiman, 23.
Heiman was injured in the crash and treated at a local hospital. He was placed under arrest for his involvement in the crash.
An innocent driver was also injured in the crash, but is now home recovering.
Medina works to sell high performance cars and says in this case, the street racers carry a heavy burden of responsibility.
“With the cars that are coming with the power that they are comes a responsibility, just like you could cause harm not only to yourself but someone else, so we take pride on educating our customers in what they are getting into, because when you have a car that makes big power, you’re responsible,” said Medina.
Tampa police are working to identify a second driver involved in the incident.
