American tennis star Venus Williams involved in fatal car crash in Florida

RT
Fri, 30 Jun 2017 11:46 UTC

American tennis star Venus Williams was involved in a car crash which resulted in the death of an elderly passenger in another vehicle in Florida.

According to a report released on Thursday by local police in Palm Beach Gardens, Williams ran a red light in her 2010 Toyota Sequoia SUV, causing a June 9 crash that injured 78-year-old Jerome Barson, who died two weeks later, as reported by AP.

It's known that Barson was in a car being driven by his wife, Linda, who suffered unspecified moderate injuries.

Linda Barson told investigators that she was approaching the intersection when her light turned green, and that she was unable to stop in time before the collision with Williams.

The tennis player was not hurt.

Following the news, Williams' lawyer, Malcolm Cunningham, released an official statement regarding the incident, which has been published by New York Times.

"Ms. Williams entered the intersection on a green light. The police report estimates that Ms. Williams was traveling at 5 m.p.h. when Mrs. Barson crashed into her. Authorities did not issue Ms. Williams with any citations or traffic violations. This is an unfortunate accident, and Venus expresses her deepest condolences to the family who lost a loved one."

Williams is due to participate in the Wimbledon Championships at the start of July. She has won seven Grand Slam women's singles titles, five of them coming at Wimbledon.

Reader Comments

Irhologram · 2017-06-30T13:35:38Z

So...the Palm Beach Gardens police department released the official Police Report on the 29th, saying Williams ran a red light and injured a man who later died on the 23rd, and yet Williams didn't get a ticket on June 9?

Do you think its normal for a Police Report to be released 20 days after the fact? As a former police beat reporter, I can tell you, the reports are publically available immediately after processing, which happens immediately after end-of-shift.

So...what happened here? The story is much too incomplete. Is the inference that there are TWO police reports, one written on 6/9, to which reporters had access, and then now another one, a week after the man died?

Who changed their tune when he died? The Widow, who maybe had an agreement RE: hospital debt ... which now would no longer needed, but whose lucrative wrongful death lawsuit would be made solid with this Police Report? The Police, who can't risk further exposure because the widow now has financial surity to dig for witnesses and justice? Will she be suing them, too, for a cover-up? Or is the PD coming clean to avoid chanrges of "cover-up" before any action on her part?