JENSEN BEACH — Florida Highway Patrol investigators are asking for the public’s help in identifying a hit-and-run vehicle involved in a fatal, early morning Jan. 31 crash, the FHP stated in a Wednesday release.

James Dennis Coutu, 43, was riding a motorcycle north about 2:15 a.m. on U.S. 1 south of Jensen Beach Boulevard. Coutu’s Kawasaki motorcycle struck the back of a vehicle traveling ahead of him, and he was thrown from the motorcycle.

A dark colored sedan hit Coutu, of Port St. Lucie, as he was in the roadway before the sedan turned east on Jensen Beach Boulevard.

A white van passed through the scene seconds later.

FHP investigators ask that anyone with information about the hit-and-run vehicle and witnesses to the crash to call Corporal P.J. Wyatt at (772) 468-3967 ext. 216 or Treasure Coast Crime Stoppers at (800) 273-TIPS.

Federal aviation officials will be investigating the emergency landing of a small plane in open field just north of a Florida’s Turnpike service plaza this afternoon.

Florida Highway Patrol photo of the plane that landed at the St. Lucie Plaza on the Turnpike.

Traffic wasn’t tied up because the site is a wide open field, FHP spokesman Jorge Delahoz said. The closest lane – on the northbound side – was roughly 50 yards away from the plane, he said.

Delahoz said the pilot told officials that his engine cut off on him.

Smith sustained a minor injury and was transported to St. Lucie Medical Center for treatment. No one else was hurt, according to FHP officials.

The plane did strike an unoccupied lawn maintenance trailer parked in the field just north of the plaza before it came to a final stop.

UPDATES 1:50 P.M.

A man was flown to Lawnwood Regional Medical Center after getting pinned to between a pest control truck and a garbage truck this morning.

The man was behind the garbage truck, giving the driver directors as he backed up in the 13500 block of Netherby Avenue off Indian River Drive, Florida Highway Patrol spokesman Lt. Tim Frith said.

The man didn’t notice how close the garbage truck was and he was pinned between it and a pest control vehicle on site, Frith said.

He suffered severe leg injuries and underwent surgery at Lawnwood, Frith said.

St. Lucie Fire District crews were called to the scene shortly after 8:30 a.m., district spokeswoman Catherine Chaney said.

Henry Froats

Henry Froats, 30, told a Florida Highway Patrol trooper late Wednesday night he had been robbed on the side of Interstate 95 as he was fixing a flat tire shortly before 9:30 p.m.

Froats, who works a jewelry store, told the trooper a man in a blue vehicle pulled up behind him and robbed him at gun-point, taking off with a half-million dollars in jewelry and his cell phone.

Martin County Sheriff’s investigators checked Froats’s trunk and found a suitcase with a computer case that contained diamonds, a cell phone and a cell phone’s memory chip, according to a sheriff’s report.
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By ANDREW MARRA
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

A 65-year-old Jupiter man died in a car crash Wednesday morning on Beeline Highway in southern Martin County.

Benjamin Newlands was traveling west in a Buick station wagon when he veered across both lanes and crashed into a marsh, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.

He died inside the car.

The crash happened about 10:20 a.m. The FHP said no other vehicles were involved and it was not clear what caused him to veer off the road.

andrew_marra@pbpost.com

Martin County Sheriff's deputy Joseph Angelico gets a platter of two entrees from Red Lobster waitress CJ Biegner during last year's event. Photo by David Spencer.

The annual Tip-A-Cop fundraising event to benefit Special Olympics Florida is scheduled for today. Members of the Martin County Sheriff’s Office, Stuart Police Department, the Florida Highway Patrol and other local law enforcement agencies will be volunteering at Red Lobster in Jensen Beach from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. until 10 p.m. assisting the dining room staff.

Gratuities from patrons during those times will benefit Special Olympics Florida as part of the local fundraising effort for the 2009 Law enforcement Torch Run.

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Florida Department of Law Enforcement officials have identified the man who was shot by a Florida Highway Patrol trooper as 32-year-old Carlos Javier Perez Alonso.

The trooper shot Perez Alonso after he carjacked a Sebastian resident Kerrie Johnson at a Hess gas station on Okeechobee Road in Fort Pierce at about 3 p.m., running over her leg in the process, authorities said.

Perez Alonso then fled to Interstate 95, where Fort Pierce police chased him as he sped north, police said. After crossing into Indian River County, he pulled into the median and ran off on foot.

It was then that the trooper shot him in the stomach area, said Richard Piccininni, lead agent in charge of the FDLE field office in Fort Pierce.

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FORT PIERCE — A man using a walker died this morning after he was hit by a vehicle while he was trying to cross Juanita Avenue.

St. Lucie County Fire District crews responded to 1111 Bedford Drive at about 7:10 this morning, district spokeswoman Catherine Chaney said. Witnesses told crews Fort Pierce resident Cecil Rivers, 51, was walking across the street when he was struck, Chaney said.

The vehicle that struck him was driven by Fort Pierce resident Ezekiel Rhyant, 77, according to Florida Highway Patrol. Neither Rhyant or his passenger were injured.

According to FHP, Rhyant was driving east on Juanita when Rivers walked into his path.

Paramedics transported Rivers to Lawnwood Regional Medical Center for treatment, fire district and Florida Highway Patrol officials said. According to FHP, the man died this morning.

No other information was immediately available.