Fully-Loaded Moving Truck Overturns on State Road 100 at I-95 Exit, Driver Injured

A fully-loaded truck owned by Flagler Moving and Storage overturned on State Road 100 just after 11 a.m. today (Oct. 21), with three men on board. The driver sustained injuries to his head, shoulder and arm as the driver’s side window shattered and the truck scraped the pavement, scraping the driver with it. But he was treated at the scene and not hospitalized.

Two fellow movers were not injured, though one of them was shaken up by the wreck. No other vehicles were damaged, but another vehicle had caused the wreck, according to a Florida Highway Patrol investigator at the scene.

The trucl was exiting I-95, the investigator said, and following a car that appeared to be heading in the same direction: the car and the truck were in the lane going east, toward Flagler Beach. But at the last moment before the turn the car in front of the truck swerved to make a left instead, and head west.

Ricky Madden, the 42-year-old driver of the moving truck and its crew chief, attempted to avoid the car, but the truck ended up hitting the triangular concrete curb at the foot of the exit, tipping the truck. Madden said there was nothing he could do beyond that point but pray. The truck ended up on its side, facing east, in the northernmost lane of State Road 100.

Traffic was backed up heading east, from the intersection with I-95 as Roger’s Towing began the towing operation at noon. That operation was likely to take a while.

“It happened so fast,” Madden said, “it was scary as hell Really scary. We came off the exit, the guy gut me off. As soon as he cut me off I yanked the steering. Truck went right on to two wheels. Once I yanked the steering, that was all, that was it.”

He said if he didn’t have his seat belt on, the result would have been more grave. Brandon Holifield, 17, was one of his co-workers, along with a third, unidentified man.

The woman whose possessions were on board the truck was at the scene as well. The load was to be the first of two, from the Destination Daytona area to a residence in Ormond by the Sea. But most of her more fragile possessions–glass and other kitchenware, for example–was aboard that first load, she said.

The Flagler Beach Fire Department and Flagler County Fire Rescue responded, along with the Palm Coast Fire Police and the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office.

In April 2013, at the same intersection, but on the on-ramp to I-95 southbound, a similar-size moving truck belonging to Two Men and a Truck overturned after taking the curve too sharply, blocking the roadway for hours. No one was injured in that wreck. Three weeks ago, a dump truck overturned at the intersection of Palm Coast Parkway and U.S. 1, damaging another car and injuring the driver of the truck.