A Flagler County man lost his life near 1 a.m. this morning when his car rolled over from the I-95 exit ramp to Palm Coast Parkway and ended up submerged and upside down in a retention pond.
Palm Coast Acting Fire Chief Bradd Clark said units were dispatched at about 1 a.m. for a severe crash after reports that “the driver was driving erratically” and had rolled into the pond. Two engine companies and a battalion chief were dispatched.
Crew members from the first arriving engine and the fire rescue unit dove into the water “to see if there was a viable patient,” Clark said. There was not.
The man had been driving north when he took the Exit 289 ramp. “He was flying,” said John Rogers, owner of John’s Towing, which the Florida Highway Patrol dispatched to the scene. Clark referred to a “higher speed rollover.”
The car, a Volkswagen GTI, veered off the ramp, struck a tree then went into the water about 40 feet from the embankment. It was entirely submerged. (“I’m part of a car group with him,” a commenter wrote on the Flagler County Sheriff’s Facebook page notice about the crash earlier today. “Unfortunately a lot of them like to go to 95 or other main roads to race.”)
A John’s Towing crew member dove into the water to connect the car to the truck. Rogers pulled the car out of the water at 2:10 a.m.
FHP’s Troy Harper was the traffic homicide investigator at the scene. The investigation required the off ramp to be closed for several hours. It was still closed nearing 7 this morning. The body was claimed by the medical examiner in St. Augustine for an autopsy, as is usually the case with traffic fatalities.
The crash resulted in the 10th road fatality of the year in Flagler County, the fifth involving a car (the other fatalities were motorcyclists, cyclists and a pedestrian). As of May 30, the Florida Highway Patrol had tabulated 457 crashes in the county and 223 injuries.
The Truth says
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
Sorry they lost their life, but I am glad they didn’t take an innocent persons life.