DRIVER, 19, SENTENCED IN FATAL HEAD-ON COLLISION NEAR STEELE CANYON

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November 12, 2010 (El Cajon)—Baseball player Andrew Bellati, 19, pled guilty to gross vehicular manslaughter in a head-on collision January 22 that killed David Norman Reid, 50, and injured three others. Yesterday, a judge sentenced Bellati to five years of probation and eight months in custody, with credit for three months time that he has already served.

 

Bellati was driving his girlfriend, a basketball player on Steele Canyon’s team, to a game when he lost control of his Mustang on a rain-slicked highway, crossed the center line and collided head-on with a mini-van driven by Reid. “CHP reported when I was there that the speedometer was frozen at 80 mph,” Leonard Villareal, public information officer for San Miguel Fire, told East County Magazine following the tragedy.

 

Reid’s son, Garrett, 17, suffered numerous broken bones but has recovered, ECM news partner 10 News reports. Bellati's passenger suffered a concussion. Bellati also suffered major injuries.

 

A former star player on the Steele Canyon baseball team, Bellati graduated in 2009 and was drafted by the Tampa Bay’s rookie team in the Gulf Coast League. He earned a 2-5 record and a 4.04 ERA with the Princeton Rays of the Appalachian Rookie League this summer. According to ESPN, his fast ball has been clocked at 88 mph.



But on January 22, speed proved deadly in the fatal accident at Highway 94 and Campo Road in Spring Valley, just west of Steele Canyon High School.

Bellati’s sentence was the result of a plea bargain and reflected the wishes of Reid’s widow. According to the prosecutor, Mrs. Reid “does not want to ruin the young man’s life,” 10 News reported.

 


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