FHP: Belle Isle city manager person of interest in hit-and-run crash

BELLE ISLE, Fla. — Florida Highway Patrol troopers said Belle Isle’s city manager is the person of interest in a hit-and-run crash last month, which injured the other driver.

Richard Anderson is now being sued by that other driver.

Anderson told Channel 9 he owns the truck that hit the driver but would not say if he was behind the wheel that night on County Road 46 in Lake County.

Troopers said his truck was going the wrong way at 1:30 a.m. on April 5 and crashed into Michael Falcon’s car.

The Florida Highway Patrol said it’s trying to identify who was behind the wheel of Anderson’s black Dodge Ram truck when it crashed head-on into Falcon’s grey four-door Toyota Corolla on a dark Lake County road last month.

Falcon was airlifted to Orlando Regional Medical Center and suffered serious and permanent injuries.

In FHP's report, witnesses who stopped at the scene said the truck's driver, "could have been a male with white hair and glasses. Who was seen walking around the crash scene talking on a cellphone and then left in an unknown direction.”

Anderson's Dodge Ram was left behind at the crash scene.

Falcon and his wife are suing Anderson, accusing him of being behind the wheel.

The lawsuit, filed two weeks after the crash, says "Anderson, veered into plaintiff, Michael Falcon's lane of travel, striking the vehicle, head-on at a high rate of speed."

Anderson said he'd have his lawyer call Channel 9 when reporter Kathi Belich asked him if he was behind the wheel.%

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Falcon is a Sanford Public Works supervisor who was called out early that morning to take care of an equipment problem.

The Falcons want documentation of Anderson's whereabouts in the four hours before the crash and his phone records before and after.

Cox Media Group