A 71-year-old South Daytona woman lost her life in a head-on collision Saturday morning on State Road 11, south of County Road 304–also known as Cody’s Corner–in Flagler County.
According to the Florida Highway Patrol and Flagler County 911’s dispatch notes, the woman was driving an SUV north on 11, a two-lane highway, when she “failed to maintain her lane” and swerved into the oncoming lane.
A driver going in the opposite direction swerved to avoid her, and did, but the woman’s SUV struck an SUV that was behind the car that managed to get out of the way, causing the head-on collision. The victim in the other vehicle is a 61-year-old St. Johns County man.
The collision left the woman entrapped, the front of her car entirely crumpled. Witnesses who stopped rendered aid, one of them smashing the window in the woman’s car to get access to her. She was reported to have an extremely faint pulse and to be barely breathing. She was not conscious. The crash was reported to 911 at 10:15 a.m. At 10:26 a.m., a paramedic declared her deceased.
The 61-year-old victim was on the ground and in pain when witnesses rendered aid, with back pain and possibly a fractured leg. FHP reported the man’s injuries as “minor,” though he was transported to a local hospital for treatment. He had been wearing a seat belt, FHPO reported. The woman had not been wearing one.
State Road 11 was shut down in both directions, and northbound traffic was diverted at the SR11-SR40 intersection, as well as at SR11-CR304. The road reopened shortly after 4 p.m.
The fatality was the 13th on Flagler County roads this year, the seventh to a person in a vehicle; five motorcyclists and one pedestrian are among the victims. The county has accrued just over 1,000 crashes so far this year, 483 of them with injuries, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.
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