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Arrest made in fatal crash that severely injured Miami firefighter

An 18-year-old was charged with DUI and vehicular homicide in the 2018 crash that killed a 16-year-old and left a firefighter with a fractured skull and spine

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Alexander Martinez, 18, was arrested and charged with DUI manslaughter, vehicular homicide and other counts related to a 2018 crash that killed a 16-year-old and severely injured a Miami firefighter.

Photo/Miami-Dade County Corrections and Rehabilitation

David Ovalle
Miami Herald

MIAMI — An 18-year-old Miami man has been charged with the traffic crash that killed a teenager and injured a Miami firefighter.

Alexander Martinez was booked into a Miami-Dade jail late Thursday. He’s being charged with DUI manslaughter, vehicular homicide and DUI with serious bodily injury to another.

Investigators say Martinez was behind the wheel of an SUV when he lost control on Interstate 95 near Northwest 62nd Street in May 2018. The SUV plowed into a Miami Fire-Rescue truck that had been on the side of the highway helping another car that had been hit.

Severely injured in the crash was Firefighter Javier Corrales, who was taken to Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital. He spent several days in the hospital before he was released. Corrales suffered a skull fracture and a fractured spine, among other injuries.

Killed in the crash was 16-year-old James Villa, a student at Christopher Columbus High School. In total, eight people were taken to the hospital after the crash.

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