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Florida truck driver charged with crashing rig while smoking meth

Crash tore awning off shopping center, totaled tractor-trailer, pickup truck

A Florida tractor-trailer driver has been accused of smoking meth while in the cab — and totaling two vehicles and damaging a shopping center. (Photo: Shutterstock)

This isn’t a happy Memorial Day weekend for Florida truck driver Michael Calvo.

The Cape Coral driver admitted to having smoked meth before he crashed into the back of a Publix shopping center Thursday afternoon in Haines City near Lakeland, according to reports that cited the Haines City Police Department.

According to police, Calvo, 51, was making a delivery in the back of the shopping center when his truck tore an awning off the building and hit an unoccupied pickup truck, pushing it for about 200 feet. Both vehicles were totaled, reports said.

After the wreck, an officer reportedly approached Calvo and asked if he needed medical assistance. Calvo told him that he thought he was being “pranked” by a television show and resisted exiting the tractor, reports said, citing police information. 


NBC2 News obtained images of the crash scene and a mugshot of Michael Calvo from the Haines City Police Department.

After a few minutes, the officer was able to remove Calvo from the truck and asked him what caused his truck to crash, whether he had fallen asleep, been drinking or was experiencing a medical emergency, according to published reports.

“I was smoking my meth pipe,” Calvo said, according to police information cited in the reports.

Calvo was arrested and faces charges of possession of methamphetamine, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest without violence and possession of narcotics paraphernalia, according to reports.

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Mark Solomon

Formerly the Executive Editor at DC Velocity, Mark Solomon joined FreightWaves as Managing Editor of Freight Markets. Solomon began his journalistic career in 1982 at Traffic World magazine, ran his own public relations firm (Media Based Solutions) from 1994 to 2008, and has been at DC Velocity since then. Over the course of his career, Solomon has covered nearly the whole gamut of the transportation and logistics industry, including trucking, railroads, maritime, 3PLs, and regulatory issues. Solomon witnessed and narrated the rise of Amazon and XPO Logistics and the shift of the U.S. Postal Service from a mail-focused service to parcel, as well as the exponential, e-commerce-driven growth of warehouse square footage and omnichannel fulfillment.