The man was not wearing a seat belt, St. Petersburg police said.

ST. PETERSBURG – A man died Sunday (Aug. 7) when he was thrown from his car after it flipped several times, according to the St. Petersburg Police Department.

Thomas Francis Shea, 75, died at the scene. He was not wearing a seat belt, police said.

Mr. Shea was driving a 2007 Nissan Sentra east on 54th Avenue N about 10:45 a.m. when the car left the roadway, drove up onto the landscaped median and hit a tree. The force of the collision caused the vehicle to rotate clockwise and it flipped over several times before coming to rest in the eastbound lanes of 54th Avenue, police said.

It is unclear why Mr. Shea drove off the roadway. Police said there were several witnesses who reported he was driving erratically and ran a red light at the intersection of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street  N just before crashing.

The investigation is ongoing, pending the results of the autopsy report and the toxicology report.

For information about the St. Pete police, go to police.stpete.org.

St. Petersburg Police | Car Crash | Thomas Francis Shea | Tampa Bay Reporter

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