POMPANO BEACH, Fla. — Virginia Baker remembers only silence and darkness after the impact.
“I heard nothing. I felt nothing. And my world went entirely black in an instant,” she said.
Baker was driving her daughter, Lorene Young, home to pick something up before an early flight out of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport when their car was struck from behind on Interstate 595 near 136th Avenue just before 6 a.m. on May 19, 2024.
According to the Florida Highway Patrol, the crash happened in seconds.
Investigators say the driver of a speeding Lexus, identified as Sofia Todorov, then 19, was traveling at 124 miles per hour just before the collision claimed the life of Young. The 65-year-old was an attorney with her own firm in Cooper City.
“The insides of my car were dangling,” Baker recalled. “I felt moisture somewhere. The car was smoking.”
“I knew,” Baker said quietly. “In the car. And I asked in trauma, when they were working on me. They said, ‘We’re doing everything we can.’ And the next time I asked — God took her.”
Court records show Todorov appeared in bond court Wednesday, formally facing charges in connection with the fatal crash.
“The crash resulted in the death of the passenger of the other vehicle,” a judge noted during the hearing.
Todorov’s attorney, Jeffrey Grossman suggested she might have been cut off by Baker.
“My client indicated to police that the other driver pulled into her lane in front of her,” said Grossman. “Now, I’m not suggesting that my client was driving at a regular speed, but what I am suggesting is that my client did break as soon as this car pulled in front of her.”
But the Florida Highway Patrol crash report contradicts the assessment of a lane change.
“Vehicle 2 (Baker) was traveling directly ahead of Vehicle 1 (Todorov). Vehicle 1 failed to slow and to keep a safe distance from traffic ahead,” the report states.
Todorov’s arrest warrant indicates that she did hit her brakes, but just under two seconds before the crash.
Baker says she’s speaking publicly now because Young would’ve wanted her to.
“She asked me to,” she said. “At her wake, people stood and applauded her for all that she has done. She was a good kid.”
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