MIDDLE AGE CRISIS RACE WRECK: Illegal street race crash sends race driver Don Ladouceur to a trauma unit in fast flight on chopper; his wife too on second medevac chopper – both critical

MIDDLE AGE CRISIS RACE WRECK: Illegal street race crash sends race driver Don Ladouceur to a trauma unit in fast flight on chopper; his wife too on second medevac chopper – both critical

ST. LEONARD, MD. – Were they high school kids drag racing on a Saturday night on the way to a country bar for some wild dancing with a redneck band? How about local greasers or gangbangers showing off their rides for kicks or videos to put on YouTube?

Nope, a couple from St. Mary’s County that police say were in an expensive sports car were racing another vehicle on Md. Rt. 2/4 near Lancaster Drive in St. Leonard when the driver lost control and did a major flip out that left his wheels totaled and him and his passenger in twin flyouts to trauma centers.

Calvert County Sheriff Spokeswoman Kristen Leitch reports that on Saturday, August 3, 2019, at approximately 8:20 p.m., members of the Calvert County Sheriff’s Department Patrol Bureau and Crash Reconstruction Team responded to the area of MD Rt. 2-4 and Lancaster Drive in St. Leonard, MD, for a report of a motor vehicle collision involving a single vehicle.  Upon arrival, units located a 2018 Alfa Romeo that was involved in a collision and subsequent rollover.

Preliminary investigation revealed that the Alfa Romeo and another vehicle were involved in a street race on southbound Rt. 2-4. The driver of the Alfa Romeo lost control of the vehicle, struck a guardrail, and subsequently rolled several times coming to rest in the grass on the west side of Rt. 2-4. 

The second vehicle involved in the race was struck by the debris from the Alfa Romeo and came to a controlled stop.  The operator of the second vehicle remained on the scene and is cooperating with the investigation.

The driver of the Alfa Romeo was Donald J. Ladouceur, 53 of Great Mills, MD. A front-seat passenger in the Alfa Romeo has been identified as Brooke Ladouceur, 38 of Great Mills, MD.   Both occupants were transported by MSP Trooper 2 and Trooper 7 to the University of Maryland Prince George’s Hospital Center where they are listed in critical, but stable condition.

Police say that at this time speed and driver error appear to be the main contributing factors in the collision.

Did alleged racing drivers on Rt. 4 really care who they might have killed?

Donald-Ladouceur-photo-from-LinkedIn.

A 2018 Alfa Romeo can run between $40,000 to $60,000, depending on the model.

From posts on the Facebook pages of both Brooke and Don Ladouceur, they appear to be average middle-aged folks with Brooke the mother of a brilliant high school age student and the recently married couple were leading happy lives.

Lindsay Canter charged w/ DUI homicide for intentionally forcing Nissan she was racing on Rt. 4 off the road and killing Ronald Ball

According to his LinkedIn profile, Donald Ladouceur formerly worked for General Dynamics and currently is employed at Zenetex, a Department of Defense contractor with a facility located in California, Md., that supports contract with the Navy at Pax River Naval Air Warfare Center. Ladouceur is listed as the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) Transportation Manager at Zenetex.

Police Beat: Eastern Shore Street Racers, Shooting

Donald Ladouceur doesn’t have as much as a single speeding ticket on his record – until now with charges pending – if he lives.

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The split-second decision to participate in an illegal road race at high speeds on a major public highway and endangering the lives of all others on the roadway isn’t limited to those driving while impaired or young people determined to live on the wild side.

Drag-race-dead-after-school-let-out-at-Patuxent-High-School-left-canary-yellow-Mustang-operator-Michale-Vito-and-three-others-dead-in-Lusby-Md.-THE-CHESAPEAKE-TODAY-photo

An illegal street race by students leaving the nearby Patuxent High School resulted in four deaths on Jan. 27, 1999, on Rousby Hall Road when a Mustang driven by Michael Vito crashed into a rented moving van, killing the driver of the truck, Vito and two of his high school passengers. Michael Keith Vito, 17, and his stepsister, Jacqueline Suzanne Rose, 14, both of Lusby, and Rachel Lynn Thomas, also 14, of Solomon’s, Md.

Drag-race-dead-after-school-let-out-at-Patuxent-High-School-left-canary-yellow-Mustang-operator-Michale-Vito-and-three-others-dead-in-Lusby-Md.-THE-CHESAPEAKE-TODAY-photo

The driver of the car Vito was racing was never identified as he was charged by the Calvert States Attorney as a juvenile. In Juvenile Court proceedings, the 17-year-old teen agreed with a Statement of Facts presented to the court by the prosecutor which said that the youth and Michael Vito were playing an illegal street race gang called “Leap Frog” when the horrific crash occurred.

Both Vito’s mustang and the competing car were carrying students from Patuxent High School when they began their ‘game’ on the public road which resulted in the day of high-speed high-school slaughter.

The teen admitted he first passed Vito on the right-hand shoulder of the road, an all-too-familiar occurrence on many highways today, and then Vito passed the teen’s car by using the passing lane heading into oncoming traffic.

Vito was trying to make another leg of the ‘leap-frog’ when he lost control and slammed into the oncoming U-Hall truck. The driver of the truck never had a chance to take evasive action as Vito, provided a new Mustang by a parent, went out in a blaze of glory, taking his stepsister and another teen with him.

The scene of a fatal street race on Rt. 5 in New Market, south of Charlotte Hall in 2008. THE CHESAPEAKE TODAY photo

Donald Lee Roberts, 35, the innocent driver of the U-Haul truck died at the shock trauma center a few weeks later, the same hospital where Donald Ladouceur and his wife Brooke are now in critical condition.

The side of the U-Haul truck was adorned with the image of a saxophone player looking over the scene of carnage, perhaps playing a final goodbye.

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