It was 10 o’clock this morning. A 50-year-old woman was at the wheel of her Mitsubishi, going east on State Road 100. She was stopped at the light at Landing Blvd., one of the entrances to the Town Center shopping mall, in front of Dunkin Donuts and Pizza Hut. She was in the outside lane. Jose Boirie, 51, and Felipe Casto, 20, were in their Honda on the inside lane, parallel to the woman in the Mitsubishi.
As soon as the light turned green, both cars started moving east when Bill Kinnell, 63, of Bunnell, driving a Ford Windstar LX van, slammed into the Mitsubishi from behind.
“The lady in front of me stopped, reacted sooner than I could and I hit her from behind,” Kinnell said, his right wrist in a bandage from a gash he suffered in the wreck.
Boirie, owner of CompuTec Solutions in Bunnell, saw it differently. “You know when the light just turns green and you just start barely out? Man, he just came barreling out,” Boirie said. “He was flying. He had to be flying.”
“No brake lights. Just the crash,” Casto said. “We can call it our lucky day. He just missed us by what, 10 inches?”
The woman in the Mitsubishi was not as lucky. She was able to walk and talk when paramedics arrived at the scene, but was taken to Florida Hospital Flagler for treatment. The Mitsubishi itself had been shoved to the shoulder, its rear end turned into an accordion-like mash. Kinnell’s van veered into the wood-line from the force of the crash. There were no tread marks behind the stoplight, suggesting that the van hadn’t applied its brakes before the crash.
Kinnell was removing light construction and maintenance equipment from his van–a saw, power tools, an electric cord–and placing them on the grass on the shoulder as a Florida Highway Patrol trooper completed his report. One lane on SR100 was closed for about an hour. The scene was cleared shortly after 11 a.m. when Roger’s Towing towed the van.
palmcoaster says
Lately within the last 3 weeks in our family we were crashed while stopped on red lights. The firs time was in Palm Coast Parkway South East and Belle Terre. In the first crash no one hurt and my SUV did sustain any damages as the driver behind me hit my hitch. His car had the hitch holed his front bumper. Fist thing I asked the driver that crashed on my car was….were you texting? He said no.
Second incident were a close relatives waiting on the red light of Rte 100 and 95 they were crashed from behind by a lady that was “distracted” and got a citation of careless driving. Thank God my relatives barely escaped injury, no one was injured with 3 vehicles involved. The distracted elderly lady made 2,000 damage in my relatives car, she demolished her own car and bounced on another SUV causing dmage on it as well.
Then my advise to ourselves and all, right now is….better watch the traffic approaching from behind while stopped on a red light. Leave plenty of room in front of you in case a “distracted driver” rams you then may have the chance to avoid the crash…Maybe.
jen says
I can’t count how many people I pass in this intersection that just do not pay attention. Belle Terre speed limits should be lowered. Just the other day I was driving with both my children in the car and I look over at a swerving car between the grass and my lane!!!… low and behold a young driver texting…. HELLO PEOPLE what the heck can be more important than not trying to cause an accident and hurting others…….
Ed says
Watch for traffic approaching from behind? What can you do about another driver slamming into you from behind? NOTHING! I was hit from behind WHILE watching the van’s driver arguing with his kids through my rear-view mirror. You won’t be able to avoid that type of crash.
palmcoaster says
Ed I avoided in the last year two rear end crashed in my car by leaving plenty of room first parked on the Rte 40 red light as I saw a distracted small car driver approaching fast I advanced the 20 feet I left in front of me on that light intersection and pressing the horn really hard…I believe I alerted the back driver and he break hard avoiding the accident for one foot I think.
The other was in Ridgewood Avenue Volusia and avoided the crash by jumping to the turning lane.
When I was hit in PC Pkwy was was not looking back…but that one was uneventful.
Texting and driving should be prohibited or something invented that when we turn our car ignition disables the gadget automatically. I noticed all this incidents after massive use of I IPods, IPhones etc. My reality. I know I will receive a lot of wrath for this post.
Kendall says
Handheld cell phone use needs to be outlawed while operating a vehicle. Drivers should be required to be hands free at all times. Many other states have this and for the life of me I cannot understand why Florida does not.
Additionally, GPS systems should not be able to be programmed when a vehicle is moving.
Layla says
Should apply this to bicycles as well. I nearly hit a child who veered into my lane on a bicycle. He was texting and swerving in the middle of the street.
Ed says
@palmcoaster. …Remind me not to ride with you. You are a “lightning-rod” for collisions.
palmcoaster says
Dear Ed…I do not drive staring at my rear view mirrors…I only look back if I am stop on a red light with traffic still approaching my car from the back…so far and thank God I have many years with no accidents, or wildlife road kill incidents and proud of it! Other drivers IPhones and texting may change that and is really scary. Are you one of them?