FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A 17-year-old driver speeding up State Road 7 just west of Delray Beach on Thursday night plowed into a car full of people, killing six, police said.
Investigators with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office believe Noah Galle, of Wellington, was under the influence of alcohol and or drugs at the time of the 10:58 p.m. crash. Galle’s injuries were minor, according to a preliminary crash report from the Sheriff’s Office.
The report says Galle was driving a 2019 BMW M5 and speeding north in the inside lane on State Road 7 when he ran into the rear of a northbound 2018 Nissan Rouge driven in the inside lane by an unidentified woman.
The impact caused the Nissan to rotate clockwise off the road and into the center median where it flipped and and rolled over, landing upside down.
The BMW also rotated clockwise onto the eastern shoulder of southbound State Road 7.
Five people in the Nissan were pronounced dead at the scene. A sixth person was pronounced dead at Delray Medical Center.
By late Friday, the Sheriff’s Office had not released the names of the dead, saying investigators were still working to identify them as well as finding their next of kin.
State Road 7 includes lengthy stretches without traffic lights enabling drivers to travel faster than on other South Florida roads that generally are snarled with traffic. The maximum speed limit on roads and highways in Florida is 55 mph. Police did not release how fast either car was moving in Thursday’s crash.
Most of the wreckage had been cleared from the road by Friday afternoon, but signs of the fatal crash remained.
Debris was scattered for about a quarter mile along the grassy shoulder on the east side of State Road 7. Shattered tail lights, a sideview mirror, pieces of the bumper and fragments of the interior of the roof were spread out on the side of the road.
Among a large patch of dirt and torn-up grass where the Nissan landed was a discarded and crumpled Monster energy drink and old beer bottle.
No charges were filed Friday. Marc Freeman, a spokesman for the State Attorney’s Office, said it would likely take months to finalize the crash report, get toxicology reports and possibly review the black boxes of the vehicles before any decision is made about specific charges and whether to charge Galle as an adult.
The crash is one of the deadliest in recent memory.
In 2013, Tabari Kemp, then 21, was driving 128 mph when he ran through a red light and slammed into a car killing five people between the ages of 14 to 22 in Riviera Beach. The impact was so severe that four of the five people in the vehicle were thrown from it.
Kemp was sentenced to 30 years in prison. However the sentence was overturned on appeal in 2019. The judge ordered a new trial saying that during the next go-around, the state may not use testimony from a Florida Highway Patrol expert witness, testimony that the state said was critical to debunk Kemp’s defense that he passed out while behind the wheel of his Mercedes before the crash.
A plea deal with Kemp last year allowed him to be a free man when the state decided to forgo another trial. A judge sentenced Kemp to five years, the number of years that he had already served behind bars.
Another crash in Palm Beach County that killed four people, includes two children ages 6 and 8, is still making its ways through the court system. Prosecutors allege Paul Streater was huffing from an aerosol can when he drove 107 mph into a family’s car that was waiting at a stoplight in Delray Beach.
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