Tampa's CBS affiliate is reporting that witnesses are saying that Nick Hogan's Supra was racing a silver Dodge Viper right before the crash. However, police say it's too early to know for sure what led to the crash. Furthermore, Clearwater Police confirmed that Nick's injuries are non-life threatening. He's now at home recovering.
According to the grandmother of the passenger in Nick Hogan's wrecked car, he may have suffered brain damage due to the crash.
Nick Hogan's Passenger, An Iraq Vet, May Have Brain Damage By Stephen Thompson and Chris Echegaray, The Tampa Tribune Published: August 27, 2007
CLEARWATER - The passenger in the car wrecked by Hulk Hogan's son Sunday night returned from Iraq last year and may have suffered brain damage in the crash, his grandmother said this morning.
Speaking from Staten Island, Catherine Graziano said her grandson, John Graziano, 22, was with the U.S. Marines in Iraq.
Her son – Graziano's father, who lives in Dunedin – was nearly incoherent when he told her by telephone of Graziano's condition, she said. She remembered her son saying something to the effect of her grandson may have suffered brain damage.
"He said it doesn't look good," Catherine Graziano said. "He was very incoherent."
"To come home from Iraq and for this to happen," she said before bringing a telephone conversation with a Tampa Tribune reporter to a close. She said she had to work on getting a flight to Florida.
Graziano is in critical condition at Bayfront Medical Center. Meanwhile, Hogan's son, Nicholas Bollea, also known as Nick Hogan, 17, is not listed as a patient any longer at the hospital, a Bayfront spokeswoman said. He is presumed to have been released.
Graziano, whose local address is 1225 Curlew Road in Dunedin, was riding in the front passenger seat of a Toyota Supra driven by Bollea, Clearwater police said.
The Supra "inexplicably" left Court Street on Sunday at 8 p.m. and struck a tree in the median, destroying the car on impact, Clearwater police spokesman Wayne Shelor said. Both of the car's occupants had to be extricated.
"Everything that happened last night was because of excessive speed," Shelor said this morning. "When the car hit, it largely exploded or disintegrated."
No charges have been filed. The investigation into the wreck continues, Shelor said.
This is Bollea's second accident in as many years involving a sports car.
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