Father recovering after driver crashed truck on Palmetto Expressway in apparent suicide

The attorney of a driver who was hurt in a violent crash on the Palmetto Expressway is speaking out a week after detectives say the other driver who caused the wreck died by suicide.

Carlos Silva with Silva & Silva said Jorge Reales was driving on the Palmetto Expressway last Friday morning when a truck went through and over a concrete barrier and landed on his client’s car.

“Scary sight to be working early in the morning, going from job site to job site and suddenly a car comes out of nowhere and causes this horrific accident,” Silva said. “It’s horrific, but it is a miracle he’s alive.”

Investigators said 26-year-old Reinerio De La Torre Toledo was driving the truck on Northwest 54th Street in Doral and didn’t stop, driving through the intersection and crashing into the wall.

He went over the wall and onto the Palmetto Expressway, where he hit another SUV, investigators said. A dashcam from a nearby car captured the wreck. Detectives said they were confident that Toledo intentionally killed himself, and that they also found a gun on the Palmetto.

“It is very tragic on both sides because for someone to take their life, they must be desperate in their life and think that there’s no way out,” Silva said.

Silva said Reales is still in the hospital, but he’s alive.

“Jorge is a Christian man, a decent man with three kids and a lovely wife,” Silva said. “They’re suffering a lot, but in the suffering there is light at the end of that tunnel which is, he’s going to live.”

Right now, the family wants answers.

“(They want to know) Who’s going to help us, what do we do, who’s responsible, why did they do this?” Silva said.