Last Updated: 9:42 a.m.
Some 3,000 residents in Palm Coast’s P, E and R Sections lost power after midnight this morning following a car crash that knocked out a power pole on Royal Palms Parkway.
Nicole Qualls, 28, of Palm Coast, was traveling east on Royal Palms in her 2008 Lexus, around 12:30 a.m. With her was Joanne Ruggiero, 56, of Tolland, Conn. Just past Rickenbacker Drive, and for reasons yet to be determined, according to the Florida Highway Patrol, Qualls ran off the road, crashed into a wooden power pole on the north side of the road, took it out, then crashed through a residential fence.
That immediately knocked out power for surrounding areas, though many customers in each of the affected sections were spared.
Qualls and Ruggiero suffered only minor injuries and were treated at Florida Hospital Flagler.
But the power pole she crashed into ran lines along Royal Palms and fed lines across the road, to a pole on the south side. With lines on the road, the Palm Coast Fire Police closed Royal Palms at Rickenbacker on the west end and at Belle Terre Parkway on the east end, starting at half past midnight. The road was still closed at 8 a.m. as half a dozen Florida Power and Light crews were still at work restoring the lines.
Qualls was charged with careless driving.
The Palm Coast Fire Department and Flagler County Fire Rescue responded to the scene, as did the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office, before FHP took over the investigation.
Royal Palms was reopened to traffic at 9:40 a.m.
Richard says
Is there a difference between “careless driving” & “reckless driving” in regards to the seriousness of the infraction?
Peaches McGee says
Careless driving citations are commonly referred to as the catch-all citation since they are often issued when the police officer can’t find any other specific traffic law violation that seems to fit the charge.
Unlike a careless driving charge which is a civil traffic offense in Florida, reckless driving is a criminal traffic offense in Florida.
mark101 says
” for reasons yet to be determined, “, lets just say she was distracted. Lets see, cell phone involved ?, maybe impaired BY ? SPEED ?, car steering all of a sudden broke, big foot ran out in front of her ? so many Yet’s
Gary says
I looked it up for you Richard, https://www.emkeylaw.com/legal-blog/2014/february/careless-driving-vs-reckless-driving/
DRedder says
I’d bet there’d be far more power failures if FPL stopped trying to push thier overpriced surge protector meter adapters and inaccurate smart meters and focused on replacing the power poles with underground service.
gmath55 says
They have a song for this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iP8_Dbvpi-A
woody says
That’s why they ALL should be cement,the cement ones don’t dart out in the road in front of vehicles.
Born and Raised Here says
People in Florida have generators
jake says
@dredder, “I’d bet there’d be far more power failures if FPL stopped trying to push thier overpriced surge protector meter adapters and inaccurate smart meters and focused on replacing the power poles with underground service.”
You probably meant, “far fewer” power failures…
As far as focusing on “replacing the power poles with underground service”, FPL would gladly do this, just as soon as you agree to a rate hike to pay for it.
Petra says
Complaining about a rate hike replacing the power poles with underground services, it’s nothing compared to not having power during or after a hurricane, but new towns already building underground services like Palm Coast, Germany is much older and has everything underground for a long time, I’m in my late 50s and they had everything underground, and think how many people could stay alive not hitting a pole, wrapping their cars around a pole and paying for a broken pole, I’m in New England we have to pay for a broken pole.