Michael Graziano, the younger brother of the man who suffered severe brain damage in a crash with Nick Bollea in 2007, died Friday from injuries sustained in an April 3 crash in Largo.
Graziano, 24, was the passenger in a 1994 Volvo that slammed into the back of a dump truck at Ulmerton Road and 66th Street at 3 a.m. that morning. He had been hospitalized since the crash at Bayfront Medical Center.
Graziano's older brother, John, was riding in a car with Bollea, the son of well-known wrestler Hulk Hogan, when it rammed a palm tree. An Iraq war veteran, John spent two years undegoing treatment at the James A. Haley VA Medical Center before being released in 2009.
John Graziano's mother, Debra, now cares for him. A sister who lives in Texas, Christin Carson, spent months in Florida helping after John's injury.
The two crashes are eerily similar in that both Graziano brothers were passengers and neither wore a seatbelt.
"It's a devastating tragedy for a family that has already suffered more than their share of tragedy," George Tragos, an attorney for the Graziano family, told the Tampa Bay Times following the crash.
The Graziano family sued the Bolleas and settled for an undisclosed sum.
Michael Graziano's father, Ed, was handed a 10-year prison sentence last year after being charged with trying to hire a hit man to kill Debra.
The driver in Michael Graziano's crash, Cameron Richard Bosley, also was rushed to the hospital that night. His condition has improved.
No charges have been filed in the crash involving Michael, but the accident remains under investigation.