Long after his son died in a wrong-way crash, Frank Urrutia mounted a video camera on his car trunk and drove a very specific 2.8 miles on Florida’s Turnpike near the county line between Broward and Miami-Dade.
The highway span was the exact ground covered last year by Sunshine Perez, who had made two trips to liquor stores to buy Patron tequila before driving the wrong way onto a Turnpike exit ramp. She then sped down the Turnpike Extension in the wrong direction in her 2010 Honda Element SUV and crashed head-on into the 2016 Honda Civic driven by Urrutia’s son. The crash happened at 1:50 in the morning on Jan. 9, 2025.
Broward Judge Peter Holden sentenced Perez last week to 20 years in prison for her reckless and fatal mistake. But Frank and Tiffany Urrutia’s legal fight on behalf of their dead son, 23-year-old paramedic Ezequiel “Zeke” Urrutia, isn’t over. They are suing the Florida Department of Transportation and a host of companies involved with the state’s wrong-way driver detection system, which they say wasn’t working properly.
A spokesman for FDOT did not respond to multiple requests for comment from the Herald.
Seeking to hold FDOT, others accountable
Though Frank Urrutia said he feels a great sense of relief — “like a ton of bricks have been removed off my back” now that the sentencing is behind him — he said this next court fight is important to prevent another tragedy. Attorney Skip Pita filed the lawsuit in Miami-Dade Circuit Court on Dec. 30. An amended complaint was filed earlier this month. The negligence lawsuit names FDOT and 14 companies as defendants…