SON IN ONE CAR KILLS MOTHER IN
ANOTHER
DONA VISTA -- The drivers in the two Ford Mustangs raced
each other down the small-Central Florida town highway at speeds well over 100 mph. One,
Dwight Samples, had owned his car for less than two weeks.
Suddenly, a slower-moving car appeared ahead, out of nowhere. Unable to swerve, Samples
plowed into the back of the car, killing the two women inside.
A few minutes later, Samples learned that the women were his mother, Diane Samples, 45,
and her friend, Vivian Green, 72. They had been driving around to look at Christmas
lights.
``It's bizarre. His mom was doing an act of kindness taking this lady around to see
Christmas lights,'' Lt. Chuck Williams, a spokesman for the Florida Highway Patrol, said
of the late Wednesday accident. ``You think the probabilities for a phenomenon like this
are, wow.''
After the accident on State Road 19 north of Eustis, about 45 miles northwest of Orlando,
witnesses said Dwight Samples went to the other car and realized the driver was his
mother. He asked arriving emergency workers to help her instead of him.
Samples, 21, was airlifted to Orlando Regional Medical Center with wounds suffered when
his head went through the Mustang's windshield. He underwent surgery and was in stable
condition Thursday, said hospital spokesman Joe Brown.
A decision on whether to charge Samples won't be made until after the crash investigation
is completed in a few days, Williams said. A toxicology test was given to Samples, but
there is no indication that he was under the influence.
Troopers were searching for the driver of the other Mustang.
Florida Highway Patrol records show Samples had been stopped for speeding four times in
the past four years, including once for driving 85 mph in a 55 mph zone.
Family members didn't want to talk to reporters, but a neighbor at the Golden Estates
Mobile Home Park where Diane Samples lived said the mother and son were very close. Dwight
Samples lived in a separate trailer in the same park, located behind the sprawling Golden
Gem Growers citrus plant in Umatilla, as did Diane Samples' brother, sister, two nieces
and a grandniece.
Dwight Samples frequently was over at his mother's trailer for meals and to do his
laundry.
``They were very, very close,'' said neighbor Susan Schmidt. ``This poor kid is probably
going through hell right now.''
Diane Samples, a health-care aide, always stopped to chat with neighbors in the tight-knit
park of 60 trailers as she pulled along her grandniece in a wagon, Schmidt said.
``It was a 1-in-a-trillion thing,'' she said of the accident.
Florida man charged with vehicular homicide for drag-racing crash
Thursday, March 7, 2002 from The Morning Sun.net
TAVARES, Fla. (AP) -- A drag racer who
accidentally plowed into his mother's car, killing her and an elderly passenger, has been
charged with their deaths.
Dwight Samples, 21, faces up to 30 years in prison and a $20,000 fine if convicted on two
counts of vehicular homicide in the Dec. 19 accident that killed his mother, Diane
Samples, 45, and Vivian Green, 72.
The young man surrendered Tuesday and posted $10,000 bail. Prosecutors also issued a
warrant for Jerrod Abbott, 24, who allegedly was drag racing with Samples and faces
identical charges.
The pair were allegedly going nearly 120 mph on Dec. 19 on a small highway northwest of
Orlando when Samples smashed into his mother's slower-moving car.
The mother and her friend died at the scene, though her son didn't initially know who he'd
struck. He's been in agony ever since, according to his father.
"Dwight lives in hell," Elliott Samples said. "I don't know if he'll ever
get out. I can't see that anybody on the face of the earth can give him any more hurt than
what he's already got."
The father added that "there has to be some recourse. But jail is not the
answer."
Man who
killed mom during drag race gets four years
April 9, 2003
TAVARES -- A Umatilla man who accidentally killed his mother and her elderly passenger when they pulled in front of his car during a drag race will spend four years in prison.
Dwight E. Samples, 22, was sentenced Monday on two counts of vehicular homicide. Upon release, he will be required to serve two years of house arrest and his driver's license will be suspended for three years. He also was sentenced to 15 years' probation.
Killed in the Dec. 19, 2001, accident were Diane Samples, 45, and her passenger, Vivian Green, 72.
Investigators said Dwight Samples was racing Jerrod Abbott, 25, of Umatilla when he hit his mother's Chevrolet Cavalier. He was traveling about 100 mph.
The elder Samples was an employee at an assisted-living facility and was driving Green, a resident there, on a tour of local Christmas lights.
Abbott's case is still pending. He also faces two charges of vehicular homicide.
Elliott Samples, Dwight Samples' father, said his son has suffered enough and should be released. "I don't feel prison is the answer for this," he said.