Loss of 'upstanding person' stuns victim's friends

Jason Cushnie was stunned to hear of the passing Friday of his friend Martin Drummond of Martin County. He said he sometimes worked with him.

"It seems like good people just get taken away from us too soon," Cushnie said. "I kind of still don't know why it happened and how it happened, but it was shocking."

Drummond, 67, was riding his bike Friday on the bridge from Stuart to Sewall's Point when he was rear-ended by a car.

Investigators said the driver, Elise Elder, 23, was impaired when she veered into the bike lane. She is charged with DUI manslaughter and leaving the scene of a crash.

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Cushnie said the way Drummond lost his life hit close to home.

"I had got hit by a drunk driver last year also and he was praying for my healing and stuff and for him to get hit and killed by another drunk driver that's the same age, a different person, that kind of hit me really hard," he said.

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Drummond's wife and daughter told us he was a great man and father who lived his life showing unconditional love and pointing people to faith in Jesus.

Drummond's friends said he was well-known in the community as a pastor and a publisher.

"He was ... an upstanding person and really encouraged people to reach their goals and to be positive," Cushnie said. "It's just really sad that a person like that has been taken from the community because there's not many people like him."

According to the Martin County Sheriff's Office, Elder posted a $150,000 bond Saturday morning.