ORANGE PARK, Fla. – One man died and another man was arrested following a crash early Sunday morning involving a Harley-Davidson and a Volkswagen, according to authorities.
The Florida Highway Patrol said the crash happened shortly after midnight at the intersection of Bartlett and Debarry avenues in the Orange Park area.
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According to the Highway Patrol, the driver of the Volkswagen failed to stop behind the Harley-Davidson, which was stopped at a stop sign at the intersection, and the front of the car collided with the rear of the motorcycle.
Troopers said the motorcyclist was taken to Orange Park Medical Center, where he died. Friends told News4Jax that the motorcyclist was a member of the Latin American Motorcycle Association.
According to an arrest report, a witness, who is also a motorcyclist, said he rolled up on the scene shortly after the crash. The witness said a man in the driver’s seat of the Volkswagen then put the car into reverse and collided with the witness’s motorcycle before leaving the scene, according to the report.
Moments after the crash, a trooper located the Volkswagen a mile away at a gas station on Wells Road and met with the driver, who was identified as 39-year-old Carlos McCarter, according to the report.
The report states that the trooper “could smell the odor of an alcoholic beverage” and said McCarter “slurred his speech.” McCarter told the trooper he had been involved in a crash and “had been drinking alcohol earlier in the night,” according to the report.
According to the arrest report, when the trooper examined the Volkswagen, the trooper noticed the car had front-end damage, the airbag was deployed and the windshield had damage “believed to be from a body striking the windshield.” According to the report, when the trooper drove to the crash scene and examined the Harley-Davidson, the motorcycle had heavy rear-end damage.
The trooper then spoke with a female witness who lives near the crash scene. According to the report, she heard the crash, went outside her house, saw a man get out the Volkswagen then get back into the car, and then saw the male witness and another motorcyclist pull up before the Volkswagen took off.
McCarter was arrested on charges of leaving the scene of an accident involving a fatality and leaving the scene of a crash involving injuries.
The arresting trooper was able to get a judge to sign off on a search warrant to get blood and DNA from McCarter.
While the arrest report shows McCarter has an Orange Park home address, the report states that he is from Louisiana and told the trooper that he travels to Atlanta, Georgia, every two weeks.
As of Tuesday, McCarter remained in the Clay County jail on $80,000 bond, according to online jail records.