WINTER PARK — The man authorities say fled after causing a deadly crash at a Florida day care center has surrendered.
The Orange County Sheriff's Office says 26-year-old Robert Alex Corchado surrendered Thursday at the county jail.
Police agencies across the state had been searching for Corchado since the Wednesday crash that killed a 4-year-old girl and injured 14 other people, most of them children.
The Florida Highway Patrol says Corchado slammed into a convertible, which then smashed into the KinderCare building north of Orlando.
Records show he's been arrested eight times since 2000, including in December when he was charged with leaving the scene of another crash.
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WINTER PARK — Authorities are casting a wide net in the search for the man they say drove the vehicle at the center of a day care car crash, then fled the scene.
The Florida Highway Patrol said Thursday that police agencies statewide have been alerted to be on the lookout for 26-year-old Robert Alex Corchado. Sgt. Kim Montes says officials don't know for sure whether he is still in that state.
One child died and 14 people were injured. On Thursday, Montes identified the girl who died as 4-year-old Lily Quintus.
Police say Corchado was driving a Dodge Dorango that struck a convertible, which smashed into the KinderCare building.
He has been arrested eight times since 2000. In December, he was arrested on a charge of leaving the scene of a crash and drug count.
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WINTER PARK, Fla. (AP) — The man with a long history of arrests whom authorities are seeking in a deadly car crash into a Florida day care center was the driver of the vehicle that fled the scene, the Florida Highway Patrol said early Thursday.
The agency had previously called 26-year-old Robert Alex Corchado a “person of interest” in the Wednesday afternoon crash. On Thursday, spokeswoman Wanda Diaz said in a statement that Corchado — who has been arrested eight times since 2000 — was driving a Dodge Durango that struck a Toyota Solara convertible, which jumped a curb and smashed into the KinderCare building in the Orlando area. One girl died. Fourteen other people, mostly children, were injured. The convertible's driver wasn't injured.
Local television footage showed small children and infants in cribs being taken outside to the day care's playground. Several of those injured were carried out on stretchers.
Late Wednesday afternoon, parents could be seen waiting to pick up their children, and then clutching them in their arms as authorities escorted them to their vehicles.
Authorities said Wednesday that they were searching for Corchado, who they believed was heading to Orlando International Airport in an attempt to flee.
A man answered the phone for a number listed to Corchado and hung up when he was asked, “May I speak to Robert Corchado?”
Corchado's most recent arrest, in December, was on a misdemeanor charge of leaving the scene of a crash involving damage, a felony charge of selling narcotics, and felony marijuana possession. He was released on more than $10,000 bond and pleaded not guilty to the charges. His defense attorney in that case, Jack Kaleita, didn't return a phone call or email after business hours.
Department of Corrections records show Corchado has served prison time for trafficking cocaine and extortion.
Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs called the crash an “absolute tragedy and disaster.”
Diaz said a girl died at Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children, but she didn't have any more details. One child at the hospital remained in critical condition Thursday, and three were in serious condition, spokeswoman Katie Dagenais said in an email.
In all, 13 people were hospitalized, including the girl who died from her injuries, and two others were treated at the scene, authorities said. Eleven of the injured were children, said John Mulhall, a spokesman for the Orange County Fire Rescue.
Several of the injured at the KinderCare building in Winter Park were reported to be in “very, very serious condition,” Diaz said.