Photo Credit: Chevrolet

A deadly high speed crash involving a Corvette left the driver dead and two female passengers critically injured early Sunday morning in Opa locka, Florida, turning a quiet neighborhood into a scene of fire, chaos, and heroic rescue efforts.

The Miami Dade Sheriff’s Office says the crash happened around 7:13 a.m. along Northwest 135th Street, where the Corvette was traveling at an “extremely high rate of speed” before the driver lost control. What followed was a violent path of destruction: the car clipped a tree, ricocheted down the block, and slammed into multiple parked vehicles, several trees, two mailboxes, and even a residence before erupting into flames.

The impact threw the male driver from the Corvette and he died at the scene. He was later identified as Steven Hadley – only a day away from his 36th birthday and out celebrating his birthday early at the time of the crash, loved ones told WSVN TV 7News. His two passengers—both women—were pulled from the burning wreckage by neighbors and airlifted to the hospital in critical condition.

For residents, the crash was as sudden as it was horrifying.

“I heard this gruesome, very terrifying noise,” said neighbor Carlos Tapanes, who rushed outside moments after the impact.

“All of a sudden, poof—it starts going up in flames, about 10 feet high.”

Video captured by Tapanes shows the Corvette engulfed in a towering fireball, debris scattered across the street like shrapnel, including its orange rear bumper. He said the driver appeared to try to regain control but never recovered.

“He almost got it together,” Tapanes said. “(Then) he nipped a tree. (Hit) one, two, three, four, five cars and about six trees and two mailboxes and everything else in the path. Thank God there was no pedestrian on our sidewalk.”

Said neighbor Vivian Medina: “The fire just quickly grew, just maybe two minutes later, the entire car, it is a Corvette, orange; you can’t really tell that now. It just looks like – you can’t see much of the car right now. They literally just zigzagged – they missed the tree in front of my house, then hit the cars of my neighbor’s house.”

Another neighbor, James Moyer, described a frantic effort to save the two women trapped near the burning car.

“You see a beautiful, young woman on the ground, broken bones and barely even breathing and trying to fight for her life,” Moyer said.

“My wife was crying like crazy, trying to whisper in her ear, saying, ‘Please, God is with you, stay alive’ and trying to reassure her.”

Moyer and his wife managed to pull one woman away from the flames. Moments later, more neighbors sprinted in to help.

“The whole neighborhood came to their rescue,” Tapanes said. “They picked them out and took them away from the harm of the fire.”

First responders arrived quickly, loading the women onto gurneys and into helicopters bound for Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital, where they remain in critical but stable condition. The crash site remained taped off for hours as investigators worked to determine what led to the deadly wreck. Early indications point to speed as a major factor.

Opa locka Police initially reported the vehicle as a Lamborghini, but officials later confirmed it was a Chevrolet Corvette—a detail overshadowed by the devastation left behind.

Neighbors told reporters that they’ve seen too many wrecks on the street, where too many people are speeding. Indeed, back in the June 2023, a crash happened next door to where the Corvette caught fire Sunday, and while a 7News crew was at the scene of the wreck on Monday morning, another violent crash happened.

“I just (got) off the phone with the commissioner right now,” Tapanes said, “letting them know what happened, what actions are they planning on doing.”

Moyer added “we need to change the rules around here, ’cause this road is dangerous.”

The Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office Traffic Homicide Unit is investigating the crash.’

Source:
WSVN and NBC Miami

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