By LISA A. DAVIS
Tampa Tribune (Florida)
NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. — The crash scene already was chaos when a frantic father arrived Tuesday and desperately tried to reach his daughter, Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Larry Coggins said Wednesday.
The father drove his car onto the curb at Starkey Boulevard and Decubellis Road, barely missing a Pasco County sheriff’s deputy directing traffic, a highway patrol report said. The car stopped within 10 feet of the landing zone for a medical helicopter already on the ground.
The motorist jumped out and ran toward the ambulance where paramedics attended to Krystyna Swanson.
An emergency medical technician told the man, later identified as Karl Swanson, he could not go into the ambulance, Coggins said.
Swanson pushed the EMT out of the way, the report said, then shoved a trooper in the ambulance who told him to leave.
“I’m a doctor,” Swanson is said to have yelled.
The trooper and a deputy forced Swanson to the ground and arrested him on charges of battery on a law enforcement officer and battery on an emergency medical care provider.
Swanson, 48, of 2813 Punta Palma Court, Holiday, is a physician, Florida Department of Health records show. He practices at the Ultimate Image Cosmetic Medical Center in Clearwater, specializing in Contour Threads, a nonsurgical facelift.
However, that did not give him the right to behave as he did at the crash scene, Coggins said.
“The doctor’s actions made a bad situation worse,” the trooper said.
Swanson’s 18-year-old daughter had been driving a 2006 Mitsubishi north on Starkey Boulevard at 10:30 p.m. Tuesday when she crossed the center line and slammed head-on into another car, troopers said.
When her father arrived, paramedics were drawing blood to see whether she had been drinking, Coggins said. They had to stop until her father was under control.
Blood alcohol test results won’t be available for weeks.
Krystyna Swanson and one of her three passengers, Jeff Hutchinson, 20, were flown to St Petersburg’s Bayfront Medical Center with injuries that were not life threatening, Coggins said.
If Karl Swanson had explained he was Krystyna’s father and had not become violent, rescuers would have accommodated him, Coggins said.
“We sympathize with family members,” he said.
Swanson was released from the Land O’ Lakes jail Wednesday after posting $10,000 bail. He could not be reached to give his account of the incident.
The driver of the other wrecked vehicle, Joseph Bialowas, 25, of 8636 Magnum Court, faces a charge of driving on a suspended or revoked license. His bail was set at $5,000.