- Joined
- Nov 29, 2023
Herby Dufresne, 30, a single dad with a 5-year-old and another child on the way, was killed Aug. 12 after the minivan he was driving slammed into a semi tractor-trailer that had made an illegal U-turn on the Florida Turnpike near Fort Pierce. The accident garnered national attention after it was discovered the driver was an undocumented driver from India. Dufresne died in the accident along with his two passengers, who were also Haitian
Dufresne, according to a close friend in Haiti, arrived in Miami on Dec. 9, 2023, from Port-au-Prince. He was among the more than 200,000 Haitians who were legally paroled into the United States and given a two-year permit to live and work in the U.S. after obtaining a financial sponsor under the Biden-era humanitarian parole program for nationals of Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela. Though the program, known as CHNV for the initials of the nationalities involved, was abruptly ended earlier this year by President Donald Trump, Dufresne still had legal status under Haiti’s Temporary Protected Status designation, his friends said, and had moved to Indiana for employment opportunities. He had traveled to Florida “to accompany the woman who had come to shop,” the friend in Haiti said, adding that Dufresne and Dor were roommates in Indiana. Like most Haitians, Dufresne had come to the U.S. in hopes of improving his lot while hoping things would improve enough in his troubled homeland for him to one day return. He was from Bon Repos, a community on the northern edge of the capital, where residents were routinely subjected to gang extortions and threats, even before the leader of a local armed group joined forces with other leaders to form a powerful gang coalition now in control of 90% of the Haitian capital. “He had dreams,” said the friend in Haiti, recalling the day he left Port-au-Prince to take his flight. “But to be honest, he is someone who always knew he wasn’t going to stay in the U.S. He said he was leaving, but he would be back.” The Miami Herald attempted to speak with one of Dufresne’s sisters in Miami, but the family has been reluctant to go public, friends say. A niece of Dor was also reluctant to speak when contacted by the Herald’s new partner, CBS4. While Dor and Joseph died at the scene, Dufresne died at the hospital later that day. A father of a 5-year-old daughter living in the Dominican Republic and with another child on the way in Indiana, Dufresne was single. He initially studied journalism in Haiti, but in recent years was more focused on advancing Haitian culture. If Dufresne had listened to his instincts, and one of his sisters, “He would not have died. She told him not to leave,” his friend in Haiti said. “He left the house without her even knowing.”

Picture of the driver Source






