Nick Hogan

The passenger in Bollea's car, John Graziano, was seriously injured and suffered massive brain damage.

"[6] Bollea had two Dodge Vipers with steering modified to enhance their drifting capability,[7] but his last competition vehicle was a Nissan 350Z.

[5] On September 13, 2006, in Bay Harbor Islands, Florida, Bollea was driving a yellow 2001 Lamborghini Diablo VT owned by Cecile Barker (chairman of SoBe Entertainment, the record label attached to his sister) when it caught on fire.

[10] On the evening of August 26, 2007, just 16 days after his fourth speeding ticket in 11 months, the 17-year-old Bollea was involved in a serious crash in Clearwater, Florida.

Bollea and three members of the pit crew for his drifting team,[5] using two of his father's cars — a yellow Toyota Supra and a silver Dodge Viper — were traveling to a steakhouse when the single-vehicle crash occurred at Court Street and Missouri Avenue, near downtown Clearwater.

The yellow Supra, which Bollea had been driving in the outside lane at a high rate of speed,[12] fishtailed and spun across the road, crashing into the median strip and into a palm tree.

[13] Bollea and his passenger, 22-year-old John Graziano, were flown to Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Bollea was charged with reckless driving involving serious bodily injury (a 3rd degree felony, punishable by up to 5 years in prison plus fines), use of a motor vehicle in commission of a felony, a person under the age of 21 operating a vehicle with a blood alcohol level of 0.02% or higher, and illegal window tint.

[29] After a public records request, Pinellas County Sheriff's Office released audio tapes of Bollea's jail phone conversation from his overnight incarceration several months earlier.

[31] Bollea later sued the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office for releasing the tapes of his phone conversations.

On October 21, 2008, Bollea was released from the Pinellas County Jail due to "good time" credit and moved to his mother's home in Clearwater, Florida.

[37] On November 18, 2023, Bollea was arrested for DUI in Clearwater, Florida, the same city where his reckless driving crash was 16 years prior.

In October 2014, several publications named Bollea as the first male star to be directly targeted in the 2014 celebrity photo leaks, which included pictures of his mother, Linda, in a thong bikini.