Heat player cited for careless driving after man critically injured

Miami Heat forward Haywood Highsmith was cited for careless driving for his involvement in a car accident that left a man with a partially amputated leg.

Highsmith was on his way home from Miami’s Kaseya Center Tuesday evening following the Heat’s 121-85 win over the Orlando Magic – where Highsmith played three scoreless minutes – when the incident happened.

According to a Miami-Dade Police Department crash report obtained by the South Florida Sun Sentinel, Highsmith was driving 45 miles per hour, five mph above the posted speed limit, when he crashed into a disabled car in the road with its lights off. A man, who was helping the owner of the disabled car in the road, was directly behind the vehicle when it was struck by Highsmith, the crash report added. The car traveled 50 to 60 yards after impact.

‘Haywood struck a pedestrian pushing a disabled car without lights on down the middle of a dark road,’ Highsmith’s agent, Jerry Dianis, said in a statement to USA TODAY Sports. ‘Haywood immediately rushed to help the person pushing the car who had been injured. A tourniquet was applied to the injuries by a bystander and Haywood stayed on the scene continuously talking to the injured man, offering words of comfort.’

The man was transported to the hospital in critical condition with ‘a partial amputation on his right leg,” a fractured left leg and a possible broken left arm, the crash report said. On Thursday evening, Dianis said the injured man ‘is in stable condition.’

Highsmith, who was not injured in the crash, was cited for driving in a “careless or negligent manner,’ Miami-Dade Police spokesperson Angel Rodriguez told the Sun Sentinel.

Dianis called the incident ‘an unfortunate accident,’ and added that Highsmith ‘had not consumed alcohol or drugs and was not speeding.’

USA TODAY Sports reached out to the Miami-Dade Police Department for comment.

‘Our hearts go out to those who were injured,’ the Heat said in a statement issued to USA TODAY Sports.

Highsmith was ruled out of the Heat’s 116-104 win over the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday night due to ‘personal reasons.’

Highsmith played collegiate basketball at Wheeling University from 2014 to 2018, and, after going undrafted in the 2018 NBA draft, he signed with the NBA G League’s Delaware Blue Coats. Highsmith had stints with the Blue Coats and Philadelphia 76ers before singing a three-year deal with the Heat in December 2022.