Last Updated: Sunday, 7 a.m.
Cynthia Clark, 62, of Atlantic Beach, was killed and two people were critically injured in a three-vehicle crash on I-95 at the north edge of the overpass over State Road 100 in Palm Coast Saturday afternoon (Nov. 30).
Jaedan Pagoria, 17, and Kimberly Clark, 51, both of Drexel Hill, Pa., were critically injured. All three victims were passengers in a 2016 GMC Acadia that Danielle Hughes, 41, of Drexel Hill, was driving. Another passenger in the car, Reginald Moore, 49, of Winter Park, had minor injuries.
According to a cursory summary by the Florida Highway Patrol that explains little, Hughes was driving her GMC north on I-95, and Carlos McKnight, 21, of Jacksonville, was driving a 2017 Dodge Ram van north as well, as was Krzysztof Wroblewski, 59, of River Grove, Illinois, in a third car, a 2016 Honda. McKnight was alone. Wroblewski had two passengers.
The FHP report states Hughes’s GMC “was stopped directly in front of” the van. Even though it says charges are pending, the report doesn’t say why the GMC had stopped. It doesn’t explain how it had gone from “traveling” to “stopped.” It doesn’t say what lane it was stopped in. It only states that McKnight’s van rear-ended the GMC, and that Wroblewski, who was traveling directly behind the van, sideswiped the van.
The two women passengers in Wroblewski’s Honda, 54 and 29, both from River Grove, were not injured.
The patients were evacuated by air and by ground. The crash took place at 1 p.m., closing all northbound lanes of I-95 for an hour and snarling southbound lanes as rubberneckers slowed to look at the crash scene, then two emergency helicopters landing, collect a patient and take off.
So the cause of the crash remains unclear. The two larger vehicles showed the most severe damage, especially the front end of the passenger van and the back end of the SUV. Both those vehicles were sandwiched against each other in the emergency lane, facing north. The sedan was about 40 yards south.
The Florida Highway Patrol was at the scene, investigating. Flagler County Fire Rescue, the Palm Coast Fire Department and the Palm Coast Fire Police all responded.
At 2:10, one northbound lane was opened to traffic, and the northbound ramp onto I-95, off of State Road 100–which had been closed–was also reopened. Traffic from that point north was flowing normally, but traffic north from the Old Dixie Highway interchange, and southbound traffic from Palm Coast Parkway, is expected to be slow as long as FHP is at the scene.
Booski says
The white van was directly behind me. I was behind the GMC. When we went over the overpass, traffic was stopped. The GMC went to the left shoulder to avoid the red sedan in front of them. As I was breaking, I looked in my rear to see a white van blaring behind me. I accelerated and swerved to my right so I would not get the impact of the van and almost hit a silver SUV that was traveling in the slower lane.
Martha Bongiorno says
Do you have any updates on this story Jaedan is my Grandson and I can not fine out what hospital he is in and ggg is condition?
Antoinette Sala says
How scary! Great information for the investigation. Have you contacted the police to share your eye witness account? It’s so sad that someone died and people were injured. Prayers for all.