By: Sharon Aron Baron
A multi-vehicle crash involving five cars that took place in Tamarac left a 31-year-old resident dead.
Broward Sheriff’s Office Traffic Homicide Investigations Unit detectives are investigating the fatal crash that took the life of Karen Sweeting, 31, just after 9 a.m. on Tuesday when Tamarac resident Pauline Madramootoo, 50, who was driving a 2012 Nissan Altima northbound on Pine Island Road in the right lane approaching N.W. 77th Street hit four other drivers causing a chain reaction. The four other drivers including Sweeting, are Howard Meltzer, 54, of Cooper City; Virjen Sanchez, 41 of Opa Locka; and Sandra Carty, 62, of Sunrise were each waiting at the red traffic light in the northbound right lane.
Madramootoo’s Nissan first struck the rear of Sweeting’s 2016 Honda CRV which caused a chain-reaction collision involving all five drivers. The initial impact caused the front of Sweeting’s CRV to strike the rear of Meltzer’s 2010 Ford F-150. The F-150 then struck the rear of Sanchez’s 2009 Toyota Scion causing the Scion to strike the rear of Carty’s 1999 Acura RL.
Tamarac Fire Rescue responded and transported Madramootoo and Sweeting to Broward Health North where Sweeting died at the hospital approximately an hour after the crash. Madramootoo was treated for injuries which were not life threatening.
Sweeting was a graduate of Marjory Stoneman Douglas in Parkland and Florida A&M University.
An accident investigation is continuing.
