A 42-year-old Palm Coast man died in a single-vehicle crash on U.S. 1 just north of County Road 202 Friday afternoon.
The man was at the wheel of a Ford F-150, driving north on U.S. 1. He lost control of the vehicle, veering onto the grass media, then overcorrected, sending the vehicle rotating counterclockwise across the highway’s two lanes before crashing into a tree on the east side of the road, the Florida Highway Patrol reports. FHP reports that the man had not been wearing a seat belt.
The crash was reported to 911 at 2:22 p.m. when a driver passing by stopped and called in the crash as smoke rose from the truck. The witness, a first responder, reported to 911 that the severity of the crash left little hope that the driver would have survived, and in fact reported it to be a fatality within two minutes. A Flagler County Fire Rescue paramedic pronounced the driver deceased at 2:33 p.m.
By then an emergency helicopter had been requested, but was cancelled. The northbound lanes of U.S. 1 were closed around Favoretta. Authorities canvassed the nearby marshes to ensure that no one had been ejected. The road remained closed until past 6 p.m. as the medical examiner alone could remove the body. The medical examiner’s response, from St. Augustine, took longer than usual.
According to FHP’s revised figures, there had been 21 fatalities in road-related crashes on Flagler County roads through Nov. 18. Friday’s crash raised that total to 22. There’s been over 1,200 crashes in the county this year, with 900 non-fatal injuries.
tulip says
why doesn’t Flagler county have a medical examiner of it’s own? Having bodies lying around for quite awhile, forcing roads to be closed, or someone at home waiting 8 hours for someone that died to be tended to. We have no medical examiner and only one pilot for the med flight and between 8 am and 8 pm we have NO pilot for medflight. I think it’s horrible that the bocc doesn’t persue these two things and get some people on board in this county. Oh, perhaps they are too busy catering to real estate people and developers.
Just a thought says
Road’s would still be closed for same amount of time regardless of where the ME was located. It’s FHP that closes them for their investigation.
Concerned Citizen says
The county is too concerned about 6 figure salaries.
I’ve been volunteering in this area since 2010. I remember when they pulled Fire Flight from 24 hour service due to budget reasons. It was a bad call then. And an even worse call now with our growing population. The county BOCC says well just grab a Medivac from a neighboring county. Well it isn’t an instant process. Once a FF or Deputy calls for a trauma alert our dispatch reaches out to see what’s available. Then their dispatch has to notify their air unit. It takes precious time to get a helo in from another county.
Not just for those reasons not having Fire Flight on 24/7 service leaves a gap in Fire Fighting. Fire Flights primary mission is fire suppression. It was bought with bond money in 2002. After lessons learned from the 88 and 98 wild fires. I guess our BOCC thinks Wild Fires can only start between 8AM and 8PM. We’ve been very lucky so far to not have major incidents start over night.
Fernando Melendez says
Prayers for him and his family.
Duh says
Is there a reason Flagler County doesn’t have a Medical Examiner?
FlaglerLive says
Medical examiner offices are organized by districts. Only the larger counties are their own district. Flagler is with Putnam and St. Johns.
TREEMAN says
Use Seat Belts and note that trucks are not as safe as most new cars! sad about the death of the driver.Prayers for his family.
Vic says
Everyone should definitely wear a seatbelt but more importantly pay attention I was the wrecker operator on that accident and no amount of seatbelts would’ve helped
Laurel says
Vic: Well that’s another issue. Seat belts are the government playing daddy and a step at removing your rights as an adult. The insurance lobby is, of course, in charge. Personally, I would wear a seat belt whether it was mandatory or not, but it should be choice and not a government mandate. We used to live in a water district with several, narrow canals and we would undo the seat belts on those roads.
Joseph Barand says
So wrong that DeSantis has prevented the release of deaths by accidents, Covid and other causes. I’m sure his wife or children would get plenty of publicity?
dave says
I would say without a doubt, excess speed had something to do with this loss of control.
Atwp says
Dave I agree, don’t forget the wet roads from the recent rain. Sad situation.
Laurel says
Dave: That’s an assumption.
Ben Dover says
Prayers going out to his family , this is very difficult time of year to lose a loved one , I had an older guy in a newer Mustang cut right right in front of me on Palm Coast Parkway last Jan ,I was doing like 45 was on my way to change out faucet at G/F house , I was first at the light by 95 bridge nobody else in front of me then this fool comes into my lane no directional doing 5 miles an hr , I been in them new Mustangs , lots of blinds spots especially for a little old guy ,So I had to quick whip around him and hit gas to avoid clipping car in lane he forced me into , and at that exact second the light changed to yellow , the cars in front of me had plenty of time to continue through yellow light they were right on top of it, but they decided to stop and no way I could , I pointed out the guy in Mustang that caused the accident to the police as I was loaded into ambulance, but of course they never even spoke to him so I don`t have his name , my Cherokee was destroyed by that old fool and he gets to drive away scott free ,I should of gone against EMT`s who were telling me I gotta make sure I dont have worse spinal cord injuries than the ones I already had thanks to Sea Ray Boats , but I should of stayed and made sure he didnt just get to drive away …SMH
J. says
I am so sorry for this loss.
He was a really great guy.