kevin.shutt@newssun.com
SEBRING — One moment, Mike Cogar was sitting down with friend Noel Nazario taking a break and talking. The next moment, Cogar was gone, struck and killed by an errant car.
Cogar owned Mike’s Big Truck and Auto Repair in addition to working for the city. He outside his repair shop about 3 p.m. Saturday, visiting with Nazario.
“We were talking and the next thing I knew Mike wasn’t there,” Nazario said.
Standing about 25 feet from where they were sitting — he in a small black chair and Cogar on a milk crate — Nazario described how the Kia sedan inside the shop office brushed his pants leg.
The driver, 62-year-old Marilyn Brown, died after being taken to the hospital.
She appeared to have been south bound on Sate Road 17, losing control or over-shooting the turn where it curves right toward downtown Sebring.
Unconfirmed reports from witnesses indicate she might have blacked out before she reached Cogar’s business.
Green-leafed branches were stuck to her front right fender and there were no apparent skid marks leading into the building, where the car came to rest against the opposite wall of the garage.
Sebring Police Department watch commander Sgt. Greg Barloug confirmed Cogar’s death, his employment with the city and his status among the community.
“I know he helped a lot of people in the community,” Barloug said, as he awaited his traffic homicide investigator to arrive.
Traffic was rerouted a quarter-mile in each direction as the crime scene was expanded to include the highway.
Barloug continued, explaining Cogar was known for “working on their vehicles and not charging, or letting them work it off.”
Sebring Mayor George Hensley learned of the accident about an hour later from his wife Nancy, who had just answered their phone when News-Sun called.
“How tragic can that be to have that happen while sitting outside your business?” Hensley said. “The city will certainly do all we can to respond to that.”
People from the neighborhood, almost two dozen, gathered across the street from the scene. Whether on bicycles or walking up shirtless, old or young, most seemed to know Cogar.
Those who did were saddened or angered by his death.
“He’s one of my best friends,” Nazario said, as his relatives arrived to join him. “I’ve known him many, many years.”
He estimated Cogar to be in his early 50s.
City of Sebring Public Works Superintendent George A. Fox was asked by the police chief to notify Millie Cogar of her husband’s death.
But she was already at the shop.
“I know people he’s loaned money to that were going to lose their cars, their driver’s licenses,” Fox said.
Cogar was the kind of man to lend the shirt off his back, indefinitely.
“Every year, he would throw a ‘bum’s party’ where he would buy all the beer and liquor,” Fox said. “Nobody but the bums could come.”
City Administrator Scott Noethlich learned of the death from police chief Tom Dettman.
Cogar had been with the city since July 2004 and was promoted to lead mechanic in October 2005.
“Mike seemed to work on everything,” Noethlich said. “From solid waste trucks to police cruisers, he was multi-talented.”
Noethlich and City Clerk Kathy Haley notified city council.
Sebring has had its unfortunate share of bad news, Noethlich said, expressing his obvious shock.
“Our sympathies and prayers go out to his friends and family,” he said.
Monday, September 22, 2008 - www.newssun.com/0921-ks-cogar-crash