For the first time, we are hearing from a father who says his son was killed by a wrong-way driver this past weekend on the Florida Turnpike.
Jose Gustavo Palma spoke just moments after an investigator from the Florida Highway Patrol visited his home to discuss the accident and the death of his 23-year-old son, Gustavo Adolfo Palma Romero.
“My son was a big guy, a great guy. He was always thinking of his family and his mother after they came here from Venezuela. He was taking care of them,” Palma said.
Son remembered for work ethic
Palma said his son had to be home on Sunday to play in a soccer game. He worked two jobs — one as a forklift operator and another at a bakery—and had an incredible work ethic. He came to the United States from Venezuela five years ago.
“He’s my oldest son,” Palma said. “He was the support of the family and everything. He had a lot of friends, and everyone trusted him. He was a nice guy. He did not take drugs and alcohol. He loved his family.”
Crash happened early Sunday morning
Palma said his son was driving home to Doral in a silver Toyota Camry around 4 a.m. Sunday, when his car was hit by a blue Honda traveling the wrong way near Bird Road, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.
Video posted on social media shows a third vehicle—a white Toyota—crashing into the wreckage, injuring two people inside. Palma Romero and the driver of the blue Honda died at the scene.
Family seeks answers, mourns loss
“This is crazy, just crazy. I don’t know how this happened. Why my son? Why my son? That is it. I don’t know what else today. I just don’t know how this happened, and I just hope this doesn’t happen to any other person,” Palma said.
He said investigators told him it was still unclear how the crash occurred. He wants to know where the wrong-way driver was coming from and headed to.
“I hope you never have to feel what I am feeling. It is a bad feeling. Like someone has taken something out of your body and your heart, and it feels like they have taken a piece of you,” he said.
Funeral services planned in Opa-Locka
Palma and his family have launched a fundraising campaign to help cover burial expenses.
He said services, including a viewing, will be held Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Valles Funeral Home in Opa-Locka.
