A Mother's Hope: Palm Bay hit-and-run leaves Vero Beach man on life support, family searching for answers

Angela Redstone has been sitting by her son's bedside at the hospital, hoping and praying over his swollen body, memories racing as doctors search for signs, small or otherwise, that he will awaken. 

"It is devastating...he's my only son," the single mother said. 

"It's a parent's worst nightmare. I don't wish this on anybody. This is the hardest thing you have to go through," she said. "To see your child in a hospital, hooked up to all these tubes and on a ventilator ...”

Cameron Redstone, 22, who lives with his mother in Vero Beach, has been lying unconscious since Feb. 5 in a hospital bed at Holmes Regional Medical Center in Melbourne.

He's tethered to life-support, body bruised, broken, and bandaged, while he struggles to recover. 

His injured brain, fractured skull and gnarled legs are the result of three separate crashes over a span of 15 minutes on Interstate 95 just south of Brevard County's Palm Bay exit.

In one of those crashes — a strike by a semi — the driver fled in his truck after ramming through the already mangled wreckage, Florida Highway Patrol investigators said. 

That impact was so powerful, it tore Cameron Redstone's car in two, scattering the wreckage across the interstate.   

Now, his family is offering a $7,500 reward for anyone who can locate the truck or its driver. 

“Cameron was a happy-go-lucky kid. Someone out there has knowledge of this despicable fellow who left Cameron to suffer in the road. It is a horrible situation,” said Clinton W. Lanier, a family friend and attorney based in Indian River County. 

“We want answers. The tractor-trailer involved just kept going after slamming into the car. The driver just fled the scene,” Lanier said. 

Hit and run cases

The answers likely will not come easy, Florida Highway Patrol officials said. 

FHP spokesperson Kim Montes said there were 938 hit-and-run crashes in her six-county area handled by the Florida Highway Patrol in January, the most recent numbers available. 

That, she said, averages out to about 30 hit-and-run crashes a day in Brevard, Orange, Osceola, Lake, Seminole and Volusia counties.

Most, she said, involved only property damage.

In 2020, Montes said, 21 cases ended in fatalities and with five arrests.

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The crash involving Cameron Redstone happened at about 1:40 a.m. Feb. 5 along a darkened stretch of Interstate 95, about a mile south of the Palm Bay exit.

Florida Department Department of Transportation cameras along the interstate do not have recording capability. Montes said there's no way to store what would be a massive volume of video from the state's camera system. 

Troopers said Redstone was one of three passengers in a black Honda Accord driven by his 19-year-old friend Steven Valdes. The four were returning home to Vero Beach, a 31-mile trip south from Palm Bay. 

What happened next, authorities said, was nothing short of horrifying.

“The crash that Cameron Redstone was involved in was very complicated,” Montes said. “There was a total of three crashes at this location, with the last one being the hit-and-run with the semi truck.”

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Investigators said the first crash happened at about 1:40 a.m. In that crash, Melissa Billman, 38, of Port St. Lucie, either fell asleep or grew fatigued behind the wheel of her southbound Honda Civic. 

Investigators said the Civic struck the back of the Accord, causing the Accord to spin before striking a guardrail. The Civic ran off the road and into nearby woods.

The Accord rested on the highway, facing northeast. Redstone was not wearing a seatbelt, reports show.

Within 5 minutes, a vehicle driven by  Antoine Jackson, 29, of Palm Bay, was traveling south, unaware of the crash ahead.

Jackson’s Ford Fusion slammed into the left side of the Accord, causing it to spin in a counter-clockwise motion, leaving it to face the southbound portion of the interstate. 

Then, 10 minutes later, a semi heading south plowed into the wrecked Accord, tearing through its already mangled frame and shearing it in two. 

Redstone was ejected from the car, although investigators said they are not sure if he was thrown out before or after the semi barrelled through. 

“No one knows for sure,” Lanier said. 

Redstone's family said he took the brunt of the three crashes, jostled inside the vehicle before ultimately being thrown out.

Others in the car were injured. Redstone received injuries that left him brain-damaged and on a long road to recovery if he can survive, Lanier said. 

The investigation in the case is ongoing and so far no criminal charges have been filed, troopers said. Troopers also continue to seek leads in the case.

The semi, with its white cab and a green trailer, likely sustained front-end damage, according to witnesses.

Lanier said the truck driver may have exited the highway and hid the vehicle somewhere in Brevard or Orange County. 

A long road

Redstone’s mother stays by her son’s side daily. Doctors go over his prognosis, daily, warning her that Cameron has a 50-50 chance of survival, and that if he awakens, he will be severely brain-damaged, Lanier said.

“The brain can only take so much,” he said.

Cameron, whose social media page shows he has a love for fishing, already had a learning disability. He was working at a CVS Pharmacy warehouse, riding his bike to a bus stop to go to the worksite by day, and returning home with his mother at night. 

“He’s a good kid. I’ve known his grandparents for years. They are salt-of-the-earth people,” Lanier said. 

The medical bills have mounted. Costs are likely to exceed $500,000, he said.

The recovery and accompanying medical care will be even more expensive, if Redstone awakens.

But the outpouring from the public over his condition has been encouraging, Lanier said.

“Whatever happens, I hope this helps,” Lanier said of the reward for information leading to the whereabouts of the truck or its driver that night. 

“This is a heartbreaking story.”

Anyone with information about the traffic crashes or the truck driver who fled is asked to call the Florida Hghwat Patrol at 321-690-3900. 

J.D. Gallop is a Criminal Justice/Breaking News Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Gallop at 321-917-4641 or jdgallop@floridatoday.com. Twitter: @JDGallop.