TAMPA — A high school teacher drove the wrong way early Sunday on the Lee Roy Selmon Expressway and Interstate 75, state troopers said — but this time, it ended in an arrest, not a deadly crash.
Kevin Thomas Smisor, 24, a social studies teacher at Chamberlain High School, was booked into the Hillsborough County jail on a misdemeanor driving under the influence charge and, the patrol said, was cited with driving the wrong way on a limited-access roadway.
A Hillsborough County sheriff's deputy stopped Smisor before anyone was injured.
But the incident comes just weeks after this year's fourth fatal wrong-way crash on Interstate 275 north of downtown Tampa. Ten people have been killed in those four crashes on that same stretch of I-275 this year.
On Sunday, the patrol said it received emergency calls at 3:50 a.m. about a wrong-way driver on the expressway near 22nd Street.
Smisor was driving a gold 2001 Saturn eastbound in the westbound lanes, authorities said. He then turned southbound in the northbound lanes of I-75.
Troopers coordinated with sheriff's deputies and began blocking exits along the interstate, patrol spokesman Steve Gaskins said.
"Highway Patrol and the Sheriff's Office worked very well together last night," Gaskins said. "They started blocking off ramps looking for him. We and the Sheriff's Office were not going to go the wrong way ourselves to pursue somebody."
A deputy was waiting as Smisor exited I-75 at the northbound Gibsonton Drive entrance ramp, the patrol said. He was detained until troopers arrived and arrested him.
Gaskins said Smisor was going the wrong way for "quite a while" — about 12 miles.
"Fortunately, that roadway is going to be less traveled at night, the (expressway) especially," he said. "I think we just got lucky."
Smisor was hired at Chamberlain High in August, school district spokesman Steve Hegarty said. Hegarty said he has been in communication with the principal and other officials who are trying to determine what course of action to take with Smisor.
"I'm not sure exactly what is going to happen," Hegarty said Sunday. "This appears to be more than a DUI. We take these things very seriously."
Smisor, who at the jail listed an address in Brevard County on Florida's east coast, refused to take a breath test. He was released from jail Sunday afternoon after posting $500 bail.
State records show that Smisor had not previously been arrested in Florida. His state driving record was not available Sunday, but his driver's license file shows he had attended traffic school for an unspecified reason in February 2009.
Kevin Thomas Smisor, 24, a social studies teacher at Chamberlain High School, was booked into the Hillsborough County jail on a misdemeanor driving under the influence charge and, the patrol said, was cited with driving the wrong way on a limited-access roadway.
A Hillsborough County sheriff's deputy stopped Smisor before anyone was injured.
But the incident comes just weeks after this year's fourth fatal wrong-way crash on Interstate 275 north of downtown Tampa. Ten people have been killed in those four crashes on that same stretch of I-275 this year.
On Sunday, the patrol said it received emergency calls at 3:50 a.m. about a wrong-way driver on the expressway near 22nd Street.
Smisor was driving a gold 2001 Saturn eastbound in the westbound lanes, authorities said. He then turned southbound in the northbound lanes of I-75.
Troopers coordinated with sheriff's deputies and began blocking exits along the interstate, patrol spokesman Steve Gaskins said.
"Highway Patrol and the Sheriff's Office worked very well together last night," Gaskins said. "They started blocking off ramps looking for him. We and the Sheriff's Office were not going to go the wrong way ourselves to pursue somebody."
A deputy was waiting as Smisor exited I-75 at the northbound Gibsonton Drive entrance ramp, the patrol said. He was detained until troopers arrived and arrested him.
Gaskins said Smisor was going the wrong way for "quite a while" — about 12 miles.
"Fortunately, that roadway is going to be less traveled at night, the (expressway) especially," he said. "I think we just got lucky."
Smisor was hired at Chamberlain High in August, school district spokesman Steve Hegarty said. Hegarty said he has been in communication with the principal and other officials who are trying to determine what course of action to take with Smisor.
"I'm not sure exactly what is going to happen," Hegarty said Sunday. "This appears to be more than a DUI. We take these things very seriously."
Smisor, who at the jail listed an address in Brevard County on Florida's east coast, refused to take a breath test. He was released from jail Sunday afternoon after posting $500 bail.
State records show that Smisor had not previously been arrested in Florida. His state driving record was not available Sunday, but his driver's license file shows he had attended traffic school for an unspecified reason in February 2009.
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