Luigi and Filomena Camporeale Killed in a Wreck With Truck on I-95 Just South of Palm Coast Parkway

There is no explanation for the wreck that killed Palm Coast couple Luigi Camporeale, 85, and his wife Filomena Camporeale, 76, around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday on I-95, immediately south of Palm Coast Parkway.

One moment, Luigi Camporeale, who was at the wheel of a 2012 Ford Escape (the FHP narrative report incorrectly refers to it as an Escort) registered to an owner in Palm Coast, was on the southbound shoulder of the Interstate, facing south. The next, according to several witnesses who spoke with the Florida Highway Patrol, he maneuvered the car to make a hard left and went across the Interstate, as if to make a U-turn.

Elias Saavedra, 50, of Louisville, Ky., was driving a white, 2015 Volkswagen tractor trailer (it had no branding marks except for a few numbers on its rear doors), going south in the center lane of I-95’s three southbound lane. Saavedra t-boned the Ford Escort as it crossed the truck’s line of travel, causing the truck to gradually veer left and end up in the emergency lane, against the guardrails, which were not breached.

The Escape was unrecognizable, smashed up against the front of the truck. Authorities covered it with large yellow tarps, so the wreckage and its occupants would be dissimulated from view. The Camporeales, who have owned a home on Wild Oak Place in Palm Coast since 1994 and also own a home in Brooklyn, N.Y., were not immediately pronounced dead but entrapped in the vehicle, with rescuers first attempting to get them out of the Ford. But within about 15 minutes of the wreck, FHP announced that they’d been killed.

Saavedra was not hurt.

The southbound lanes were reduced to one lane of traffic, causing a back-up, and the southbound entrance to the Interstate at Palm Coast Parkway was closed for several hours as four or five Florida Highway Patrol investigators worked the crash. Flagler County Fire Rescue, the Palm Coast Fire Department and the Palm Coast Fire Police all responded to the scene, as did the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office.

In a new and unexpected directive, FHP, which for years had been cooperative and accommodating to media at such scenes, enabling the swift and accurate release of information, forbade media from reporting from there, thus preventing the gathering of further information. There was also quite a bit of confusion between FHP and the fire police over traffic control.