Bicyclists killed in suspected DUI crash on Pinellas Trail were Odessa couple

EAST LAKE — Janine Dorsey and Peter Yore logged lots of miles together on their tandem bike.

The couple rode so often, they wore out one bicycle and recently bought another, a bright yellow Cannondale they called the Pineapple Express. Last month, Dorsey posted a photo of herself and Yore with the new bike on Facebook.

A friend who commented urged her to “be safe out there.”

“It’s a struggle for sure!” Dorsey replied. “We do on average 100 miles a week (literally wore the old Burley tandem out!) But mostly on all the fantastic trails.”

The Odessa couple was riding Tuesday on one of those trails — a segment of the Pinellas Trail that runs along Keystone Road — when a driver caused a crash that sent an SUV careening into them, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.

Yore, 58, and Dorsey, 50, were both killed.

Troopers said the driver who caused the crash, 31-year-old Cory Robert Corrado, was driving under the influence of an unknown substance. By Tuesday night, he’d been arrested on DUI manslaughter and vehicular homicide charges.

Family and friends of Dorsey and Yore confirmed to the Tampa Bay Times that they were the cyclists killed. The Highway Patrol did not release their names because of its interpretation of Marsy’s Law, a voter-approved amendment to the state Constitution that was meant to protect crime victims but that deprives the public of information long available under Florida’s public records law.

According to an arrest report, Corrado was driving a Chrysler PT Cruiser west on Keystone Road about 5:50 p.m. Tuesday, weaving in and out of traffic on the two-lane road. As Corrado approached Meadows Drive, he tried to pass other vehicles in a no passing zone, the report states.

A driver heading east on Keystone in a Ford Escape tried to avoid a collision with Corrado’s car by steering onto the outside shoulder, but the Chrysler struck the back of the Ford, troopers said.

The impact caused the Ford to overturn, careen across a grassy shoulder and onto the paved multi-use trail, where it struck Dorsey and Yore.

Corrado and the Ford driver, a 33-year-old Odessa man, had minor injuries, troopers said.

At the hospital, a trooper noted that Corrado had bloodshot eyes, dilated pupils, body tremors, stuttering speech and other signs of impairment, the arrest report states. The results of a blood test are pending.

Corrado was arrested on two counts each of DUI manslaughter and vehicular homicide. Records show he was being held Wednesday in the Pinellas County jail in lieu of $80,000 bail.

Corrado has served two stints in Florida state prison since 2011 for burglary, trafficking in stolen property and drug possession, state records show. He was released in December after serving nearly four years.

A couple for about two years, Yore and Dorsey loved riding local trails like the Upper Tampa Bay Trail in Hillsborough. Yore always steered up front, Dorsey pedaled in back, friends said.

They were closer to their home when they were killed, riding an extension of the Pinellas Trail that opened in 2017. Cyclists rejoiced when the dedicated, paved multi-use path opened, extending east from East Lake and Keystone roads and running along Keystone before turning north into the Brooker Creek Preserve. The trail is separated from the road in the area of Tuesday’s crash by several feet of grass.

Dorsey spent much of her career as a producer with TBO.com, the website she helped launch with the now-defunct Tampa Tribune. She started with the Tribune in 1991, working as a research librarian for a few years and then as website and database producer until 2016, when the Tampa Bay Times bought and closed the paper, according to her LinkedIn page. She also served for many years as product manager for her then-husband, novelist Tim Dorsey, a former Tribune editor.

In January 2020, Dorsey took a part-time job as executive director of the political forum Tampa Tiger Bay Club. She excelled in the role, said club President Tom Scherberger, who pushed to hire her because he knew her skills would be a good fit.

“The club couldn’t function without the work she did,” Scherberger said. “She always had a smile, was always cheerful. The Tiger Bay Club board is Democrats and Republicans and she was able to navigate the politics of the club so well even though she was a hard-core Democrat.”

After just one in-person club meeting under her belt, the pandemic hit and Dorsey successfully shifted the club to virtual meetings, Scherberger said.

During the club’s first in-person meeting last month, board members surprised Dorsey by calling her up to the front and giving her a gift card and a round of applause for her hard work. On Monday, Dorsey arrived to the club board’s meeting with peaches that she and Yore grew on their Odessa property.

Other aspects of Dorsey’s life seemed to be going well, too. She celebrated Mother’s Day with her two daughters and her pride in them showed. Daughter Kelly is enrolled in medical school at the University of South Florida. Daughter Erin just earned a master’s degree from USF, and her mother posted her degrees on Facebook.

“She just seemed to be in a real happy place in her life,” said Scherberger, who said his grief about the loss was turning to anger after hearing about the circumstances of the crash.

Victoria Yore, 28, said whenever she needed help with anything involving electronics, mechanics or the outdoors she’d call her dad. Now she doesn’t know who she’ll turn to.

Victoria Yore said her father never went to college but was smart and owned successful businesses in real estate and the medical field. He was always proud of how much he could teach himself on “YouTube University,” and would work on his children’s cars, their partner’s cars and even their schoolmates’ cars without asking for money.

“We were robbed of 30 years,” Yore said. “And I’m not the kind of person that’s going to say there’s a silver lining because there’s not. It just sucks.”

Yore said over the pandemic, she and her dad became closer than before. When she launched a recipe website, she made hundreds of sweets for her father, who loved dessert. The blog never took off, but Yore said she’s grateful for it.

“Now I’m like, maybe that was a way to bring us closer,” she said.

Along with biking, her dad enjoyed pickleball. When he was younger, he enjoyed spearfishing, scuba diving, boating and other more dangerous activities he gave up when he had children, she said.

Yore said her father didn’t drink or smoke, so for him to be the victim of a crash like this was devastating.

“This is completely preventable and it happens every day,” she said.

Times staff writer Dennis Joyce contributed to this report.