Daytona Beach Shores, FL - A New Orleans man is charged with Vehicular Homicide in the death of 24-year-old Jessy Bilski of Port Orange. Daytona Beach Shores Public Safety (DBSPS) investigators got an arrest warrant for Rodney Williams, Jr and he was arrested on August 25, 2021. Because of Hurricane Ida, Williams has been evacuated so it's unclear when he'll be extradited.
The accident happened just after midnight on July 19, 2021. DBSPS investigators arrived on the scene to find a crashed motorcycle, a deceased male, and a Dodge Challenger that had crashed through the north wall of an apartment building. They also found Williams "covered in shards of glass along with bruising and some abrasions."
The investigation shows that Bilski, on his motorcycle, was traveling at 35 mph (the speed limit) southbound on A-1-A south of Dunlawton Avenue. Video surveillance from two separate sources shows the 2021 Dodge Challenger also traveling south but at a significantly higher rate of speed (appears to be more than double the speed). The car hit the motorcycle from the rear, ejecting Bilski who can be seen in the air above the vehicle as a shadow just before the car leaves the frame of the video.
Analysis of the black box in the car shows that the car was traveling at 102 mph before Williams took his foot off the gas pedal. Just four-tenths of a second before the crash, the brakes are applied. At a tenth of a second before the crash, the car was traveling at 94 mph. Due to the excessive speed, the car dragged the motorcycle and hit multiple objects such as signs, light poles, a fence, and then the building that brought it to a stop.
When Williams was questioned the first time, he told detectives that his girlfriend and her son were in the car and that the son was driving at the time of the accident. When the detectives talked to the girlfriend and the son they were told that Williams had asked to drive the car to "see what it could do."
