ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Orange-Osceola state attorney Monique Worrell announced the creation of a special unit to deal with the growing number of traffic homicide cases.
The new unit will be led by a former firefighter and paramedic-turned-lawyer David Fear.
Worrell says because traffic homicide cases are difficult to prosecute, she hopes using just one prosecutor dedicated to just those cases will streamline communication between law enforcement, victims and prosecutors, ultimately bringing justice.
Fear has been working through at least a dozen traffic homicide cases that have been sitting idle, partly due to COVID-19.
The new unit will handle cases in Orange and Osceola counties from the crash scene to court.
Several police chiefs say the unit will lead to a better working relationship and help with the prosecution of cases.
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The group Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) says more than 10,000 people are killed by an impaired driver every year, and they supports Worrell’s plan.
Dan Marquith of MADD said even with fewer people on the road due to the pandemic shutdown, cases are still up.
“We thought COVID would reduce our numbers, but the fact is across the nation it went up 9%,” he said.
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The new unit has already cleared its backlog from 2019 and is currently working on clearing the backlog of cases from 2020.
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