By Pat Gillespie
Ft. Myers News-Press
04/24/08

Capt. John “GiddyUp” Bunch has no training in politics.

But the St. James City fisherman felt he had to do something when he heard about the car wreck in December that killed Army Sgt. Daniel Beougher and injured his wife Lauren.

“I was just consumed with anger,” Bunch said. “I didn’t realize people could cause that much devastation.”

So Bunch went to Sen. Burt Saunders, R-Naples, who amended a bill that Wednesday passed a vote on the Florida Senate floor and was sent to the Florida House for approval.

The bill makes it a crime to lend a vehicle to a person with a suspended license if they have a wreck. The bill adds a penalty of a one year suspended driver's license for the owner of the vehicle.

It is already a crime to loan a vehicle to a person with a suspended license, and the penalty without a wreck is up to 60 days in jail.

“People should not give the keys to a vehicle to a person who doesn’t have a license,” Saunders said. “People will be more careful who they give their keys to.”

Beougher was killed instantly in a Dec. 8 wreck on Hancock Bridge Parkway, while his wife, Lauren, was critically injured. Ashley East, 25, faces 10 charges related to the accident — she was the alleged driver of the truck that hit the Beoughers’ Jeep.

East, whose license was suspended, allegedly drove the vehicle that caused the wreck, but Bunch is as upset with her former boyfriend, whose vehicle she was driving.

“The boyfriend handed the girlfriend the bullets to the gun,” Bunch said. “If he doesn’t hand the keys to her, Danny Beougher isn’t dead.”

According to a Florida Highway Patrol trooper’s report released earlier this month, the truck’s owner, Michael Norman, wasn’t in the vehicle during the accident. And Mandy Sturgeon, who is now Norman’s fiancee, said she supports the bill, but contends East took the vehicle without Norman’s approval. She said he was sleeping at home after taking prescription medication.

East’s blood-alcohol level was 0.089 — just above the legal limit for drivers, according to reports.
 

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