A 31-year-old Tampa woman is facing multiple charges after Florida Highway Patrol troopers say she sped along Interstate 4 at 105 mph, blew through a red light and slammed her Mercedes SUV into a median, a traffic island and a streetlight pole before trying to drive away from the wreck not once but twice.
Charisma McGowan was arrested after the crash near the I-4 eastbound exit ramp and East Columbus Drive, according to an FHP affidavit cited by FOX 13 Tampa Bay. An FHP supervisor had first spotted the SUV speeding east on the exit ramp and clocked it on radar at 105 mph, after initially estimating it was traveling more than 100 mph, the station reports. The posted speed limit on the main lanes of I-4 in that stretch is 55 mph.
A Chaotic Path Through the Intersection
From there, the affidavit describes a short but violent chain of events. The SUV ran a red light at the intersection, overshot a turn, struck a concrete median and crossed the westbound lanes of East Columbus Drive before hitting a traffic island and a streetlight pole and finally coming to rest against a curb, per the FHP account relayed by FOX 13 Tampa Bay.
When a trooper reached the SUV, McGowan and a passenger were still inside. Rather than wait for help, McGowan repeatedly tried to reverse the disabled vehicle, the affidavit states, and later got back in and attempted to drive away again.
Signs of Impairment and a Doubled-Up Breath Test
A second trooper took over the DUI investigation and noted that McGowan had bloodshot and glassy eyes, slurred speech and trouble completing several field sobriety exercises, according to the affidavit. McGowan told the trooper she had drunk a shot of liquor and smoked about half a gram of medical marijuana around 9 p.m. the night before, the report states.
Her breath-test results came back at 0.145 and 0.145 — nearly double Florida's legal limit of 0.08 grams of alcohol per 210 liters of breath, a threshold set under Florida Statute 316.193. State law also provides that a DUI conviction involving a breath- or blood-alcohol level of 0.15 or higher carries enhanced fines and an ignition-interlock requirement.
Resisting Arrest and Booking
When a trooper tried to handcuff McGowan, she pulled away and resisted, the affidavit says, and another trooper had to help secure her. She was ultimately booked into the Hillsborough County Jail facing charges that include DUI with property damage, reckless driving and resisting an officer without violence, per the arrest documents described in the report.
Troopers have not said whether the passenger riding with McGowan was hurt in the crash or faces any charges of their own, leaving that detail unresolved for now. High-speed DUI arrests have made headlines elsewhere in the Tampa Bay area recently, including a case in which Pinellas County deputies accused a driver of hitting 101 mph in a 50 mph zone on East Lake Road, and another in which FHP cited a driver going 120 mph through Tampa, according to WTSP.
