BRANDON, Florida -- A Hillsborough County sheriff’s deputy was killed by a wrong-way driver early Saturday morning. The driver also was killed in the crash, which took place just west of the Interstate 75 overpass on the elevated part of the expressway near the Westfield Brandon Town Center, deputies said.
John Robert Kotfila Jr., 30, a deputy with the sheriff’s department for six years, was rushed to Tampa General Hospital, where he died from his injuries, deputies said. Kotfila had been assigned as a traffic crash investigator to Patrol District 4 and was driving a 2013 Dodge Charger, a marked patrol car.
“Our HCSO family is one less today,” Hillsborough County Sheriff David Gee said in a statement. “The tragic loss of one of my deputies has all of our hearts heavy.”
The wrong-way driver was identified as 31-year-old Erik Thomas McBeth of Hudson.
The entrance ramp at the east end of the Selmon Expressway was closed to westbound traffic and servicing only eastbound drivers at 2:45 a.m. when the sheriff’s office received a 911 call reporting a wrong-way driver heading west on the highway.
According to deputies, McBeth was driving his 2013 White GMC Terrain SUV west in the eastbound lane of the Selmon Expressway. Kotfila had just left Tampa General Hospital following a traffic crash investigation and was headed east on the Selmon, the sheriff’s office said.
Just west of the I-75 overpass, Kotfila was unable to avoid McBeth’s car and the vehicles struck head-on, the sheriff’s office said. McBeth was pronounced dead at the scene.
“This is a loss not only to HCSO but to all the law enforcement officers who are trying to do their job and get home alive,” HSCO spokesman Col. Greg Brown said.
“The most dreaded part of being sheriff of Hillsborough County is getting the news that a deputy has lost his or her life in the line of duty,” Gee said.
Approaches to the Selmon Expressway from I-75 were closed and will be shut down for the next four hours, and deputies said the investigation is ongoing.
Tampa Tribune, Fla.
Tribune News Service
