Driver arrested, passenger killed in overnight crash

PLANT CITY -- An overnight traffic crash on a rural road ended with the passenger dead and the driver arrested on DUI manslaughter charges.

Hillsborough sheriff's deputies said the driver of a 2000 Chevrolet Blazer, Magdalano Gonzalez, 25, of Mulberry, was headed south on Henry George Road about 1:15 a.m. when the SUV left the road and struck several trees at the Old Hopewell Road intersection.

The passenger in the SUV, whose name was not released, was taken to South Florida Baptist Hospital, where he later died.

Gonzalez was airlifted to Tampa General Hospital with serious, but nonlife-threatening, injuries, deputies said. He was charged with DUI manslaughter, driving without a valid license involving death and DUI.

-- Casey Cora, Times staff writer