Crews have been working since mid-morning to remove a tanker truck carrying plastic pellets that overturned as it came off I-95’s northbound lanes at the Palm Coast Parkway exit, making a turn to go west.
Chuck Trautman, 39, the driver, was not injured. But the truck, which weighed 78,520 pounds, overturned on the shoulder of the parkway, just before the overpass bridge. Almost a dozen crew members from John’s Towing were at the scene, preparing to lift the truck. One crew member said the operation might begin after 11 a.m.
At that point, a Flagler County Sheriff’s deputy at the scene said, the westbound lanes of Palm Coast Parkway will be closed to traffic for one to two hours, from Old Kings Road west. All traffic will be diverted onto Old Kings Road. One or two eastbound lanes of the parkway may be closed, if the operation requires it, but not all three lanes.
The Parkway’s westbound lanes were closed briefly immediately after the wreck around 9 a.m.
A Florida Highway Patrol investigator at the scene said the truck was driving up the exit ramp. “The light changed to yellow and he just went a little bit too fast as he entered the curve, and he ended up rolling over,” the trooper said. “He was cited and found at fault for the crash, driving too fast for conditions.” The law doesn’t apply only to weather conditions, the trooper said, but to curves and other circumstances.
There were no environmental concerns over the truck’s cargo, nor was there a leak at the scene, the trooper said. The truck, however, was severely damaged and would be hauled off.
The truck was merely 10 minutes away from its destination at the Consolidated Container Company on Hargrove Grade, which manufactures its own plastic bottles. Trautman described the event: “The light turned yellow, I tried to stop, it just wasn’t sufficient time to stop and I didn’t want to run into anybody.” (On Thursday evening on State Road 100, an armored truck belonging to the Garda company applied the brakes too late at an intersection, went spinning, and struck a pick-up truck driven by a woman and trailing a horse. The horse was killed, the woman severely injured. The Garda truck driver was expected to be given a citation similar to Trautman’s.)
“It’s bad enough I’ll lose my job, but for somebody else to be hurt, that would have been even worse,” Trautman said.
The truck belongs to Tampa-based Bulkmatic Transport Co.
Another wreck took place almost parallel to the overturned truck as a Budweiser truck rear-ended a Nissan Maxima. There were no injuries in that wreck, which is considered separate from the overturned truck accident.
Closing the westbound lanes was necessary both to provide maneuverability for the wrecking company and for drivers’ safety, the trooper said. “We’ll have some unhappy drivers but we’ve got to do what we’ve got to do,” he said.
The Palm Coast Fire Police had taken up positions at various points in the affected area to redirect traffic. The Palm Coast Fire Department, Flagler County Fire Rescue and the sheriff’s office were also at the scene.
James says
This is what happens when lights are rigged on amber to generate Camera fee fines. An investigation need to be conducted into revenue being generated by these devices
Joe says
One thing that I don’t understand is why they do not post signs on I-95 telling about the crash so drivers can avoid it. I got off the North bound exit trying to head west on Palm Coast Parkway only to get stuck in that mess and have to loop over to Old Kings.
If I know ahead of time that the crash was there, I would have went another way. Instead of sitting in lines of traffic to be sent the wrong way…
Anonymous says
One to two hours??? And at 2:30 traffic was still being diverted down Old Kings Road..
Magnolia says
Isn’t this the second truck roll over here in 2 weeks at the same location?
Blueboy says
“The light turned yellow, I tried to stop, it just wasn’t sufficient time to stop and I didn’t want to run into anybody.”
There is a red light camera at this intersection. Short (money maximizing) yellow?
Anonymous says
Hopefully the light was red as he was going through it and he will get himself a nice red-light camera ticket to boot!
Towerflower says
This should also help prove the need for the interchange at Matanzas Woods.
Michael Van Buren says
James, do you not realize that that approach is not covered by red light camera as per state law?
bruce meyer says
I stop at this light every day. It turns green for a left turn and three car make it before yellow, more cars waiting that cannt mak it..this intersection sucks..just trying to make money on the cameras….
Agnese says
Perhaps the drivers of these heavy commercial vehicles should remember how much their vehicles weigh and prepare to stop accordingly.
Anonymous says
The article states he was exiting the highway and fyi there is no red light camera on the 95 exits. The cameras face e/b and w/b so only affects drivers on Palm Coast Pkwy.
John keiper says
First off, congrats on being able to avoid all other vehicles and pedestrians at this very busy intersection. Second, maybe your company should look into buying new tires and not recaps. From the look of these pics you had a tire come apart on the same side of your roll over and that could have been the very cause of the accident. Looks like Bulkmatic is doing pretty good with providing nice new trucks and trailers but them getting cheep with the main things that move it. TIRES.
getittogether says
I flat out refuse to slow for yellow anymore. Give me the ticket and I’ll contest it in court all day long…I’m not going to cause a wreck by slamming on my breaks.
Blueboy says
In the matter of red light cameras, Tallahassee has been bought and paid for.
Follow the money. This is a much bigger corruption deal than internet cafe’s. Follow the money.
Seminole Pride says
A Truck this size and a huge weight load has no business being in Palm Coast. His destination was Hargrove Grade, this truck belonged on US 1.
[Seminole Pride: Had the trucker taken U.S. 1, he would have been accused of evading the weigh station on I-95, as many truckers do. He was taking the legal route.–FL]
Tressie DuPont Paytas says
It is a yellow light ticket
IMO says
When you have an accident that closes down a major highway for several hours the police are supposed to close down that highway at the exit right before the accident. You assign Officers to direct people off the highway. Detour them to use other routes.
Then you have those stuck behind the accident make U-turns and direct them off the highway under traffic control Officers directions.
What Supervisor in God’s good name ran this operation? He should be disciplined for total incompetence.
What you don’t do is leave people stranded in a major traffic jam for hours on end where their autos run out of gas.
really? says
Let’s see if I understand you correctly. You would prefer to shut down northbound I95 and redirect traffic off to SR100. What about those that want to continue north past the PCP exit? Secondly, you want drivers to make a u-turn on I95? Slow down from 70+ mph to 5 mph to make a u-turn one at a time? Granted it was not the easiest problem to overcome but it was definately the safest way to proceed. BTW If you let your gas tank get that low, it actually causes the fuel pump to overheat. Palm Cast Pkwy has exceeded the maximum traffic flow and really needs to be widened.