SARASOTA, Fla. — The family of a man killed in a fiery highway crash in Florida is upset after a teen involved in the crash posted a photo to Instagram that shows him smiling next to one of the wrecked vehicles.
Robert Drewelus was driving a tractor-trailer carrying 8,500 gallons of gasoline on I-75 in Sarasota when he crashed into the back of a Volvo.
The crash caused his truck to run off the road and burst into flames. He died at the scene.
Two teenagers were inside the Volvo. A photo posted on Instagram three days after the crash shows one of the teenagers standing next to the wrecked Volvo while smiling and holding up four fingers on each hand, according to WFTS.
In the caption, the teen wrote “RIP Volv” and included a smiley face emoji with a tear drop above its eye and a semi-truck emoji.
“I’m infuriated, I’m disgusted by it,” Robert’s widow, Elsie Nieves-Drewelus, told WFTS. “I am angry because meanwhile they are posting pictures on social media thinking it’s funny, my husband what was left of him is being cremated.”
After the accident, the Florida Highway Patrol found the wrecked Volvo parked at an apartment complex.
The teenagers were taken into custody at another location, according to the report.
“They took off. They didn’t have the decency to at least to pull over and call 911,” Nieves-Drewelus said.
The driver and passenger were not named in the report because they are both minors.
The driver faces charges for leaving the scene of a crash involving death and violating his driver’s permit.
WFTS attempted to contact the teens involved in the crash but they never heard back.
The teen’s Instagram account has been deactivated but included a disclaimer that his account had been “hacked.”
The cause of the accident has not been released.
