One injured in accident on State Road A1A
An Indialantic man faces misdemeanor charges after police say he ran a red light Wednesday afternoon and struck a pickup pulling onto State Road A1A across from Second Light Beach.
Sean Chapman, 33, was cited on counts of running a red light and failure to carry a driver’s license after his Dodge Ram 2500 causing a car accident with the driver’s side of a GMC Sonoma driven by Kevin Muhs, 46, of Orlando.
After arriving at 4:35 p.m., crews from the Air Force and Brevard County Fire-Rescue cut off the GMC’s roof and extracted Muhs within 20 minutes. Muhs, listed in critical but stable condition, was seen moving his arms and talking with rescue personnel. At 5:10 p.m., he was flown by helicopter to the hospital.
“He should be OK,” said Trooper Nick Huckabee of the Florida Highway Patrol.
Chapman was not injured, and there were no passengers. Huckabee said both drivers were wearing seat belts.
Huckabee said Chapman was driving south in the left lane within the speed limit when Muhs turned left from the gate to Patrick Air Force Base.
Chapman “thought he had a green light,” Huckabee said.
Chapman’s large pickup pushed Muhs’ vehicle several feet into the northbound lanes. The wreck backed up northbound traffic for about an hour and a half. The scene, which drew onlookers from the beach, was cleared about 6 p.m.
Florida Boater Admits He Was Drinking Before Fatal Crash
An arrest report shows that the driver of a boat involved in a fatal accident in Delray Beach told police he was drinking while behind the wheel.
Mandy Romeu told police he had four drinks before the crash. The 42-year-old said he was “crushed” about the outcome and now he will “have to pay the price.” Records show he has no previous boating violations or citations.
Romeu was charged with vessel homicide, reckless operation of a vehicle and violation of navigational rules. He was released from jail on Monday after posting bond.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission says he crashed a boat into a navigation marker in the Intracoastal Waterway early Saturday. It was not yet clear if the area had speed restrictions.
Onalaska men injured in Florida boating accident
Friends of an Onalaska man severely injured in a boating accident in Florida are planning a prayer service for him.
35-year-old Jason Baldner of Onalaska is still in critical condition Wednesday after the accident Saturday in Cape Coral, Florida.
The driver of the boat, 36-year-old Jason Williams, an Onalaska native currently living in Cape Coral, has been upgraded to good condition. Another man on the boat, 31-year-old Eric Terpsma of Cape Coral, has also been upgraded to good condition.
A non-denominational prayer service will be held for Jason Baldner Wednesday at Holmen Lutheran Church at 5:30 p.m.
Florida Man charged with DUI in van-bus accident
The Florida Highway Patrol has charged a Pensacola man with drunken driving and driving with an expired license after he crashed his van into an Escambia County school bus.
David Magrino, 48, also was charged with failure to maintain a single lane after the driver’s side of his van struck the rear driver’s side of the bus, which was headed west on West Avery Street on Tuesday, the FHP said.
A witness told troopers that Magrino veered off the road as he headed east on Green Street then steered back onto road hitting the bus.
There were five Pine Forest High School students on the bus, and one suffered minor injuries. The bus driver’s assistant, Virginia Evans, 58, also suffered minor injures, the FHP said. The driver of the bus, Anna Marie Bingham, 42, and the other four students aboard were not injured.
Driver error caused fatal accident
The accident in which Doug Garrity was killed in March 2009 was caused by driver error, according to testimony this morning from a traffic accident reconstruction expert.
Prosecutors are attempting to prove at trial this week that the driver was former Braden River High School football coach Josh Hunter, and that he was drunk at the time of the accident on an Interstate 75 on-ramp in south Sarasota County. If Hunter is found guilty of DUI manslaughter, he faces up to 15 years in prison for the death of Garrity, his friend and assistant coach at Braden River.
Testifying for the prosecution, the expert, Gary Stephens, said driver error caused the accident. After reviewing the accident scene and the Florida Highway Patrol’s traffic homicide report, Stephens said he found that:
- There was no evidence that the driver had taken evasive action to avoid hitting an animal.
- There was no evidence that the driver had hit the brakes before the accident.
- The driver over-corrected both to the left and to the right, before the pickup truck overturned and went airborne.
Garrity was ejected from the vehicle and later died. Hunter and two other passengers, his brother James and Matt Braselton were not seriously injured.
James Hunter is currently in jail because he has refused to testify about whether his brother was driving at the time of the accident, and Braselton testified Wednesday he does not remember who was driving.
However, a state trooper testified that Braselton told him after the accident that Josh Hunter had been driving.
Authorities said a blood test taken two hours after the accident showed that Josh Hunter had a blood alcohol content of .21, almost three times the legal limit of .08 in Florida.
Woman killed, husband injured in train-car crash
A tragic motor vehicle/train crash that happened in Shreveport Saturday afternoon has left an elderly woman dead and her husband injured.
The crash took place just after 4:30 PM at the railroad tracks just north of Highway 3132 near the intersection of Ashley Ridge Boulevard and Line Avenue in South Shreveport. It involved a Union Pacific locomotive and a Chrysler Concord.
The passenger, has been identified as Marion Hirsch, 86, of Shreveport. She was pronounced dead at the scene by the Caddo Parish Coroner’s office. Her 92-year-old husband, who was driving at that time, was transported to LSUHC with non-life threatening injuries and is expected to make a full recovery.
Preliminary on-scene investigation reports say that the driver drove the vehicle into the side of a moving train. The exact cause of the accident is still under investigation by the Shreveport Police Department to determine exactly what factors contributed to this crash.
The impact from the collision caused at least 200 gallons of diesel fuel to leak from the train prompting Union Pacific Railroad to commission a clean-up crew from North Little Rock to remove the spilled combustible from the area; this spill does not pose a health hazard to the community.
Lake Worth man dies in rollover crash on Florida’s Turnpike
A tow truck driver who tried to make an illegal U-turn on Florida’s Turnpike Monday caused a crash that killed the driver of a van and shut down the major roadway’s southbound lanes in Boynton Beach for two hours, the Florida Highway Patrol said.
The 11:15 a.m. crash happened about four miles north of Atlantic Avenue when a southbound tow truck slowed on the turnpike in order to make an illegal U-turn, the FHP said.
The tow truck pulled into the median but the rear of the truck remained protruding into the traffic lanes. A van driving behind the truck collided with it and rolled over.
The van’s driver, Anthony Giardina, 32, of suburban Lake Worth, died at the scene. He was not wearing a seat belt at the time of the crash, according to an FHP news release.
The tow truck driver was identified as Mark Walter Edwards, 42, of West Palm Beach. He was not injured. The FHP said the case is still being investigated and charges in the crash are pending.
The crash caused the complete closing of the turnpike’s southbound lanes for about two hours.
A passenger in the Ford truck, Todd Kocher, 45, of Boynton Beach, was taken to Delray Medical Center to be treated for injuries.
Drugs or alcohol were not believed to be factors in the crash.
All lanes open after fatal accident on Florida turnpike
Troopers have reopened all southbound lanes of traffic after a fatal rollover accident on the Florida Turnpike in Boynton Beach.
The accident happened just after 11 a.m. between Boynton Beach Boulevard and Atlantic Avenue.
Initial reports suggest a vehicle hit the median wall and appeared to roll over several times. It scattered debris across several lanes of traffic.
Palm Beach County Fire officials confirm there is one fatality despite the efforts of a Hollywood battalion chief who stopped to help.
A second patient was transported as a trauma alert to an area hospital and a third person received minor injuries.
Northbound lanes had been shut down intermittently as troopers allowed southbound drivers to turn around.
Tractor-Trailer Accident Closes Route 20
A tractor-trailer went over a guardrail on Route 20 south Thursday morning in Harrison County.
Just before 10:30 a.m., the truck’s passenger side wheels hit a soft shoulder and overturned south of Romines Mills, leaving part of the rig over an embankment, state police said.
The driver was able to get out of the truck, but his passenger, his son, had to be extricated by emergency workers.
That process took more than an hour.
The passenger was flown by Healthnet helicopter to Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown.
There is no word on the extent of his injuries.
The accident pulled down telephone and cable lines in the area.
Route 20 will be closed well into Thursday afternoon while the accident scene is cleaned up.
Speed was not a factor in the accident and no citations are expected, according to state troopers.
The truck was owned by Harco Trucking. It was hauling paper goods and was headed for the Sago area of Upshur County, troopers said.
The Nutter Fort and Stonewood volunteer fire departments, along with the Anmoore EMS unit, the state police, the Harrison County Sheriff’s Department and the Division of Highways all responded to the scene, according to 911 officials.
Man struck by truck pronounced dead
The man hospitalized following Friday afternoon’s six vehicle accident on Interstate 30 has died, officials said.
John Lindsay, 70, was pronounced legally dead about 2:00 p.m. Sunday, said Billy McAnally, traffic investigator with the Texarkana, Texas, Police Department.
Lindsay was the driver of the first car struck by Celadon Trucking Services rig on the interstate near the Kings Highway exit at eastbound 218 mile marker. He and 65-year-old his wife, Wanda, were taken to CHRISTUS St. Michael Health System where he was placed in the intensive care unit on life support.
