Last Updated: Saturday, 5:30 p.m.
Five people were injured, at least three seriously, in a t-bone crash at the intersection of Pine Grove Drive and Belle Terre Parkway in Palm Coast minutes after 3 p.m. today.
Three of the victims are said to be juveniles. The crash snarled traffic on Belle Terre’s northbound lanes. Northbound traffic was diverted at Rymfire Drive.
The cause of the crash is not known at the moment. The crash involved two sedans–they appeared to be a Chevrolet and a Nissan–resulting in the entrapment of one of the occupants. The occupant was eventually extracted.
Flagler County Fire Flight, the emergency helicopter, transported one of the patients to a hospital in Jacksonville, according to its flight path. Two patients were transported by ground to Halifax hospital in Daytona Beach.
Belle Terre’s southbound lanes also had to be closed temporarily to allow the helicopter to land.
In early evening, the Matanzas High School athletics’ Twitter page posted the following, suggesting that the victims include Flagler Palm Coast High School athletes: “Girls basketball for tonight has been cancelled. Our thoughts are with the FPC Bulldogs right now.”
Around 8:30 p.m., FPC’s Girls Basketball Facebook page posted the following: “The Lady Bulldogs ask for your prayers and positive thoughts tonight as 3 of our girls were in a horrible accident this afternoon. The girls are being treated for injuries, there will be a long healing process but we will do that together as well. These girls are strong but the pain they are in goes deeper than a wound. Thank you for all who have called, messaged, and checked on them. When one hurts we all hurt, and together we will overcome this. Basketball is just a game this puts that in perspective. Enjoy every second and moment bc you never know when that can change.”
At 1 p.m. Saturday, the Facebook page updated as follows: “player one is doing well as she was released home last night she is just banged up A second player is now home recovering as she was discharged this morning, she did have to get staples in her head She is weak and in some pain but doing well The third player has a successful surgery this morning placing a metal rod and 4 screws in her femur but thankfully she has strong bones and may be able to begin PT tomorrow Our other girls not involved are still worried about their friends and a little shaken by the whole incident We are so grateful for the amount of support from other teams, players, teachers, students, and community members Your prayers are being felt by our young ladies and their families. Thank you all for your love and support. This is what community is about and we are grateful to be a part of one which is so loving and supportive.”
The Pine Grove-Belle Terre Parkway intersection has been deadly, claiming four lives in four separate crashes since 2014, most recently last March, when a 51-year-old woman was killed in a t-bone crash. One of the crashes involved a victim on a motorcycle. All the crashes followed similar patterns: either a vehicle pulled out of Pine Grove, violating the stop sign there, or a southbound vehicle on Belle Terre attempted a left turn onto Pine Grove, crossing the northbound lanes of Belle Terre, and in both sequences resulting in t-bone or head-on crashes.
Today’s crash drew responses from the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office, the Palm Coast Fire Department and Flagler County Fire Rescue. The incident was being investigated by the Sheriff’s Office.
Gina Weiss says
How many crashes, injuries and deaths will it take for them to do something!
Bonnie says
How many more is it gonna take to fix this?😡😡
Waterman says
This and all intersections in that area need to be reviewed by the City. Too many people are careless when crossing the busy road.
Jimbo99 says
Confusing Pine Grove Parkway & Pine Grove Drive are miles apart. One is almost in front of the church (Parkway), the other is south of Whiteview Parkway & closer to Rymfire. PGP has a light, PGD is a stop sign and really, nobody needs to be turning left out of Pine Grove Drive during peak traffic.
Jimbo99 says
“According to Wagner, the players’ car was turning onto Pine Grove Drive from Belle Terre when it was T-boned by a car heading north.”
So the Basketball players vehicle turned left as they were previously driving southbound & in front of a northbound vehicle/traffic on Belle Terre as they were trying to turn onto Pine Grove Drive. PGD is the first residential south of Whiteview Parkway on the northbound side of Belle Terre. Sounds like the juveniles violated a right of way for turning in front of the oncoming traffic. Just one of the many growing pains of Flagler County & City of Palm Coast.
Jimbo99 says
The source of my quote.
https://www.palmcoastobserver.com/article/three-flagler-palm-coast-high-school-girls-basketball-players-injured-in-a-two-car-crash-on-belle-terre-parkway
K says
Did you mean Pine LAKES parkway per chance?
DMFinFlorida says
@ K says: If you look at the photo at the top of the article it shows the sign and it says Pine Grove.
Shiela says
That intersection is absolutely the worst and the scene of many more accidents than the article would imply.
Jonathan says
And of course nothing will get done to resolve this. PC City Officials need to start caring about all these accidents under their watch.
marty barrett says
Or, as a solution, people could drive with more caution.
James Margerelli says
All of these turn lane intersections have no instructional signs. there is a stop sign exiting Pine Grove Prichard, the north exit of park view, Ponce DeLeon and Plainviev but the turn lanes south bound on Belle Terre have no yeald or stop signs suggesting rite of way but many times when I turn south from one of these streets people pull off of Belle Terre and cut me off half way through my turn rite after I stop check bouth ways then proceed south. many times I even get confused when I am the one traveling south on Belle Terre and am directed into one of these 4 turns. people are exiting a 45 mph lane and directed into a left turn crossing another 2 lanes of 45 mph trafic either causing you to hit a car half way through its turn out of one of these streets or into a northbound vehicle which would cause a 90 mph impact… these 4 turns I call a deadly free for all. I try to treat them as a 2 way stop and it works a whole lot better but there is no signage so it’s confusing and literly deadly. these 4 turn lanes have to be addressed before more people die or get hurt.
Denali says
Not sure where you learned to drive but most of us know that the left turn lane is your deceleration lane to prepare for your left turn. We also know that you are to YIELD to the oncoming traffic. No need for a stop sign in the turn lane.
Shark says
Intersections don’t cause the accidents. It’s almost always driver inattention !!!
Jimbo99 says
Yep, this was a case of trying to beat the northbound traffic for a left turn that had right of way. There are times I simply won’t make a left turn onto Belle Terre anymore during peak traffic, rather opting to take Whiteview for the traffic light to regulate for what seems like wave after wave of unrelenting traffic from both directions. If northbound lets up, there’s a line of southbound vehicles making left turns onto any of those streets.
It’s the growth plan for Palm Coast and expect it to worsen. Belle Terre will need more traffic lights or round about circles, it will also need to be widened. Is 35 mph going to be a new speed limit instead of 45 mph ? Those are the only solutions, since there isn’t much between Belle Terre & US 1 that isn’t residential housing to add another North South road that goes from FL 100 to Matanzas Parkway.
Miranda Confer says
How long until something is done about the dangerous roads??? I mean come one the have a pothole that’s at least 1 foot deep and 3 foot wide by the McDonald’s next to 95. There’s no traffic light on the corner of the Royal palms bridge. When someone graffiti d “put a light here” it was painted over. Stop ignoring the safety of your citizens.
The Geode says
We’ve turned into a nation of “scapegoats”. NOTHING is ever the fault of the individual. There’s ALWAYS an external reason why something happened. Systematic this. Intersection that. Nobody brave enough to say some people do dumb things and that’s that. Nobody wants to say waiting an extra 3 seconds instead of thinking “I got it”. Nobody wants to say that looking at our phones is more important than our lives. Nope. Let’s blame the intersection that has been there for 30 years…
Bruce Banner says
While I agree with everything said here, there is the new parameter of a whole lot more traffic versus 30 years ago. People are impatient by nature. Impatience and gaggles of traffic don’t mix. I’d like to see more lights (smartly synchronized!!!), along with more options for entering and leaving the various neighborhoods.
The Geode says
Why don’t you just put “round-a-bouts” everywhere since we can’t be responsible enough to use common sense to keep from killing ourselves? Better yet, let’s have a government program to hire drivers for the entitled, impatient, and excuse-making people looking to blame the amount of traffic for THEIR failure to be a decent citizen driving on the road…
The ORIGINAL land of no turn signals says
Geez how fast are these people going? Generally this is a slower intersection than I 95.
C.J. says
I have been passed by empty school buses going over 50 mph northbound toward the schools in that area. Speed is a real problem. It is unbelievable that anyone turning across lanes of Belle Terre Parkway would believe they have the right of way to pull out in front of oncoming traffic! That said, one observation I have made is that if you are turning from the turn lane built for that purpose, you can face and judge the pace and space of oncoming traffic. BUT if you are pulling out of that side street intending to turn into the opposing direction, I see people first crossing oncoming traffic, then lacking sufficient space to sit across the turn lane waiting to make the turn into the opposing lane of Belle Terre. The driver feels forced to make bad decisions. I see that every time I am on that road. If I see someone facing my direction and straddling across the end of that turn lane, I assume they will pull out in front of me. The design of that parkway including the width of the dividing strip itself is deficient especially now for the volume of traffic being experienced now. Palm Coast Parkway accidents are increasing for the same/similar reasons but mostly for crossover cars acting like they have the right of way.
Wow says
The schools are looking for bus drivers if you want to help out.
Veteran says
Five victims involved in the crash. No fault was given at the time the article was posted. Three of them are high school basketball players from FPC. It appears by the article that the other two victims are not as important as the FPC students since full disclosure was given about the condition and recovery of the three students. All lives matter where I come from.
A Concerned Observer says
To quote comedian Ron White, “You Can’t Fix Stupid.” Nor, it seems, can we fix arrogant, impatient and reckless drivers. Belle Terre Parkway has been and will always be a dangerous thoroughfare, primarily because of the many cut throughs throughout its legnth. Drivers routinely pull into the cut through and stop, waiting for traffic to open up on the other side of the parkway, or worse yet, simply pull in front of opposing traffic. This practice is illegal. https://casetext.com/statute/florida-statutes/title-xxiii-motor-vehicles/chapter-316-state-uniform-traffic-control/section-316151-required-position-and-method-of-turning-at-intersections “The driver of a vehicle intending to turn left at an intersection onto a highway, public or private roadway, or driveway must approach the intersection in the extreme left-hand lane lawfully available to traffic moving in the direction of travel of such vehicle and must make the left turn so as to leave the intersection in a lane lawfully available to traffic moving in such direction upon the roadway being entered.” The cut through is part of an intersection. If a driver cannot complete the desired left turn because of traffic in the other lanes, which have the right of way, they must not proceed into the intersection.
Since we seem unable to change the behavior of the drivers on divided roadways, and converting all cut throughs into four-way intersectios with a traffic signal is impractical and too costly, the only option is to remove all cut throughs on divided roadways, forcing all drivers from intersecting roadways to turn right only. Those wishing to proceed in the other direction must proceed to the next intersection with a traffic signal, make a u-turn (where a u-turn is not prohibited) and continue back in their desired direction of travel.
David Schaefer says
If anything that is going to be done by PC city council to correct this problem at the crossovers you can forget it. All our mayor realtor cares about is putting money in his pocket he could careless what the tax paying citizens want. The city is falling apart and busting at the seems with our roads, swales, flooding,and no good paying jobs.
Mm says
Plant more trees and bushes in median
Jon bastille says
Truth is the lights at whiteview and rymfire, plus correlating distance already provide traffic control for Pine Grove/belle terre. Even during rush hours. These accidents occur because drivers are not willing to wait for it’s accordance and they are driving into traffic. Simply driver negligence. If no laws existed the decision to turn into coming vehicle traffic or or not remains the same. Any changes to the road would have far reaching negative impact, increasing traffic majority of belle terre. It would also be a detriment to pine Grove residents, it’s traffic and safety, quality of life, and city funds while having no impact on accident rates. And if anything those residents should be ones to decide. Thankfully no one died but driver action equals instead waiting for train to cross trying to beat it. Construction not a solution, even adding simple, shiny, blinking caution indicator only adds one more thing to impede timing of those calculating beating incoming traffic , and distract drivers pointing out the sign when same occurs or who are already confused. With respect for the dead . Be safe, cheers.