HIALEAH, Fla. – A northwest Miami-Dade man faced a vehicular homicide charge after Hialeah police said he was drunk when he blew through a stoplight early Saturday morning and plowed into a sedan, killing its driver and injuring its passenger.
According to Hialeah police, Jose Manuel Borges Gonzalez, 32, was driving a Dodge Ram pickup truck along West 49th Street approaching Fourth Avenue just before 5 a.m.
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Police said Borges Gonzalez ran a red light, T-boning a Volkswagen Jetta driven by Manuel Garcia Morejon.
The force of the crash caused Garcia Morejon’s Jetta to careen into several vehicles stopped at the red light, according to police.
Medics pronounced Garcia Morejon dead at the scene while his passenger was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center.
Police said Borges Gonzalez had bloodshot, watery eyes, slurred speech and smelled of alcohol. They said they were unable to perform a field sobriety test due to the severity of the crash.
According to police, Borges Gonzalez, a Cuban national who had only been in the country for four months, didn’t have a driver’s license.
Owing to his recent immigration status, police deemed him a “possible flight risk” and requested he be held for a magistrate.
In addition to vehicular homicide, Borges Gonzalez was charged with DUI manslaughter and DUI with serious bodily injury, as well as a number of traffic citations.
He faced a Miami-Dade judge Monday and was being held on a $42,500 bond.