The driver who cops say hit 2 horses and their riders has had problems behind the wheel

The driver who police say killed two horses on Griffin Road while launching their riders into life-threatening injuries has paid $1,414 in traffic fines on eight tickets in the last four years, rolled a pickup truck, and has had his license suspended at one point.

The fines paid by 24-year-old James Rink, of Coral Springs, includes $500 in speeding violations within three days this past February, according to records.

Davie police named the riding guide as 62-year-old Joy Shupnick Finn, a North Miami-Dade horse enthusiast. Davie Fire Rescue drove her to Hollywood's Memorial Regional Hospital and airlifted a 9-year-old riding the other horse to Memorial Regional, both with life-threatening injuries.

The crash occurred less than 400 yards up Southwest 198th Trerrace from the American Horse Trails horse-riding establishment. Traffic-homicide investigators say that just after 4 p.m. Sunday, Shupnick Finn was leading a 9-year-old across Griffin Road at Southwest 198th Terrace in Southwest Ranches when Rink, attention occupied by picking up his dropped cellphone, smashed his pickup truck into the horses.

Rink wasn't injured. No charges have been filed.

In February, Rink was busted driving his 2008 Toyota pickup truck 56 mph in a 35 zone ($275 fine) three days after getting caught doing 53 mph in a 30 mph zone ($225).

When he lost control on a ramp from State Road 7 to the Sawgrass Expressway in 2015, he hit a light pole and the Toyota Tacoma wound up on its roof. Rink not only got a ticket for going too fast for the conditions but found out his license had been suspended for failing to pay a previous traffic ticket.

Rink was wearing his seat belt for that crash. He received a ticket for failing to do that a year before.

This story was originally published July 9, 2018 at 12:16 PM.