Driver Hits Man, Body Stuck in Windshield</B>
Motorist Hits Pedestrian, Drives With Legless Body in Windshield Before Reporting Accident
The Associated Press
DELEON SPRINGS, Fla. July 8 — A motorist drove home about a mile with the legless body of a pedestrian in his front windshield before calling authorities to report that he had struck the man with his car, officials said.
Deputies first learned of the accident, which happened about midnight Friday, from bar patrons who called to report finding two legs near the parking lot, according to sheriff's reports.
With Joseph Markert's torso lodged in his windshield, Daniel Dradeen, 19, drove a mile to the home he shared with Ronald Brownie and Brownie's son, who called 911, the reports showed.
Dradeen didn't stop to report the accident because he didn't have a cellular phone with him and Brownie's home was only about a mile from the accident site, Brownie said.
"A guy coming through your front windshield tends to rattle you," said Brownie.
Markert, 57, was trying to cross a roadway in DeLeon Springs, about 40 miles north of Orlando, when he was struck, the Florida Highway Patrol said.
The medical examiner will determine if Markert survived the impact, but he likely died immediately, officials said.
Investigators believe the legs were severed by the impact with the car, not the windshield. One of Markert's arms was also severed and was found with his torso in Dradeen's blood-covered car, officials said.
Kim Miller, a spokeswoman for the highway patrol, said Dradeen was not impaired and no hit-and-run charges will be filed. She said the case is under investigation.
"It's the pedestrian's fault. He was wearing dark clothing," Miller said. "The poor kid (Dradeen) was in the wrong place at the wrong time."
Last month in Fort Worth, Texas, a jury sentenced Chante Mallard, 27, of Fort Worth to 50 years in prison after convicting her of murder in the death of man she struck with her car and left to die in her windshield in her garage.
