Velazquez v. State

Facts

At about 2:30 A.M. on April 23, 1988, Velazquez met Adalberto Alvarez at a Hardee's restaurant in Hialeah, Florida. The two had never met. They agreed to race their cars and set up a quarter-mile "drag race" course on a nearby public road. The road ran toward a canal beside the Palmetto Expressway, and a guardrail and a visible stop sign stood between its end and the canal. They finished the course without incident. Alvarez then suddenly turned his car around and headed back toward the starting line and the canal, and Velazquez turned and followed. Alvarez led at an estimated 123 m.p.h. He wore no seat belt, and his blood alcohol level was between .11 and .12. Velazquez had not been drinking and trailed at an estimated 98 m.p.h. Both drivers braked at the end of the road but could not stop. Alvarez, about a car length ahead, crashed through the guardrail, flew over the canal, and landed on the far bank. He was thrown from his car, pinned under it, and died instantly. Velazquez also crashed through the guardrail but landed in the canal and swam to safety unhurt. He never struck Alvarez's car.

Issues

1. May a driver who joins a reckless, illegal drag race on a public road be convicted of vehicular homicide for the death of the other racer when the only basis for liability is his participation in the race?
2. Does proximate cause under the vehicular homicide statute require more than a but-for connection between the defendant's reckless driving and the death?

Holding

A driver who joins a reckless, illegal drag race on a public road cannot be convicted of vehicular homicide for the death of the other racer, who in effect killed himself by his own voluntary reckless driving, when the only basis for liability is participation in the race. The participation was not a proximate cause of that death.