He killed 4 tourists in a wreck. His punishment: traffic school, license suspension

Carlos Manso Blanco was speeding slightly when he barreled his truck into a rental car on the Overseas Highway in Islamorada, FL, killing four Spanish tourists in a grisly wreck that drew international media attention. He won’t be going to jail. Instead, his punishment was traffic school and the suspension of his driver’s license for six months.

Investigators have decided that Manso’s driving that March afternoon was “careless,” but not reckless — not enough to warrant a vehicular manslaughter charge under state law. Blood tests showed he was not under the influence of alcohol or drugs. And while Manso was going only about 5 mph above the 55-mph speed limit, there was no witness or evidence showing he was swerving or texting while driving.

Margarita Cortés-Pardo, 31, María López-Bermejo Rosselló, 31, Teresa Sánchez Quetglas, 30, and Ana Gaitán Díaz, 31, longtime friends from Spain who were vacationing in South Florida and the Keys. They were driving a rented Nissan Rogue. The Rogue had been driving north but was stopped, with its blinker on, waiting for incoming traffic to pass to make a turn. Suddenly came Manso, driving a large Isuzu truck carrying portable toilets. He smashed into the Rogue, pushing it into oncoming traffic — and directly into the path of a large 2016 Allegro motor home.

The motor home plowed into the rented Rogue, sending it careening into a tree. The impact was so severe — and the Rogue so mangled — that first responders initially believed there were only three victims in the SUV. Lawyers for Manso and the company cast blame on Margarita Cortés-Pardo, who was driving the rented SUV that was rear-ended. “She negligently operated or maintained the motor vehicle in which she was riding so that it collided with Defendant’s motor vehicle,” attorney Bruce Trybus wrote.

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/florida-keys/article218197330.html