Driver arrested five months after violent Tamarac crash that killed two women

A 20-year-old Pompano Beach man has been arrested five months after he was involved in a crash in Tamarac that killed two women, injured a man and a young boy and damaged two unoccupied cars, officials said Wednesday.

Frantz Laine was arrested Monday on a dozen charges, including two counts of vehicular homicide, two counts of reckless driving with injury and drug-related charges, the Broward Sheriff’s Office said.

The crash of Laine’s 2014 Lexus IS250 and a 2019 Hyundai with the two women and young boy inside was so violent that it ripped the Hyundai’s engine out and flipped the car, ejecting at least one person, the Sheriff’s Office said.

Laine was driving the Lexus with a male passenger eastbound near the 7400 block of West McNab Road shortly before 1:30 p.m. Feb. 13 as a woman driving the Hyundai was heading west, turning left into the University Commons strip mall, the Sheriff’s Office said. Laine and the Hyundai driver collided in the eastbound lanes.

Laine’s Lexus went off the road, driving into a fire hydrant, bushes and the plaza’s large sign before rolling on top of an empty Toyota Corolla parked in the plaza’s lot. Debris fell from the sign after Laine crashed into it, which then fell onto an empty Audi nearby, the Sheriff’s Office said.

All five people were taken to the hospital as trauma alerts, Van Schoen, a spokesperson for Tamarac Fire Rescue, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel at the time of the crash. The woman riding in the Hyundai’s passenger seat was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Detectives learned a week after the crash that the woman driving the Hyundai had died. The extent of the minor boy’s injuries and those of Laine and his passenger were not released.

All but Laine’s names are being withheld under Marsy’s Law, a voter-approved constitutional amendment that allows crime victims to shield their identifying information from the public.

Additional details about Laine’s arrest were not released. He was being held in the Broward Main Jail late Wednesday.