A 37-year-old Palm Coast man was killed early Friday morning in a crash with a tractor trailer on State Road 11, a little more than halfway between Bunnell and Cody’s Corner, the SR11 intersection with County Road 304.
According to a brief Florida Highway Patrol release, both vehicles were traveling south on 11, the 37-year-old man driving behind the truck. As the truck made a left turn, the 37-year-old crashed into the back of the truck. The report does not specify the location of the crash.
Flagler County’s 911 dispatch notes do: in the 5336 block of State Road 11. Property Appraiser records indicate a logging road branches off 11 on that parcel, which belongs to Bunnell-based landowners. A temporary sign on 11, for traffic traveling south from Bunnell Friday afternoon, cautioned drivers about logging trucks entering the road. It’s not clear if the sign was there Friday morning.
The crash took place at 7:07 a.m. The Palm Coast driver was at the wheel of a white Subaru, and was reported by a caller to 911 to be entrapped and unresponsive, though at that point he was still breathing. AirOne and Trauma One, the emergency helicopters, were placed on standby. Within moments of their arrival at the scene, paramedics were reporting that the Subaru driver was barely holding on to life. He was extracted by 7:32, and pronounced deceased at 7:33 a.m.
The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office followed by Flagler County Fire Rescue were first at the scene. The Bunnell Police Department also responded, as did the Palm Coast Fire Department. State Road 11 was shut down in both directions from Old Haw Creek Road to the north to Cody’s Corner to the south as significant debris blocked the highway. The truck had a collapsed spring hangar on the trailer’s fifth axle from the force of the collision. There were no indications either in the FHP report or the 911 notes of a violation on the part of the truck driver, a 35-year-old woman from Hastings. She was not injured.
By 10:30 a.m. the road had reopened, and by noon there was no sign of a crash but for a lone FHP cruiser parked on the side of the road.
The crash resulted in the fifth fatality on Flagler County roads so far this year, the second where the victim was a motorist. A cyclist, a motorcyclist and a pedestrian were the victims of other crashes.
Unsafe racetrack says
An unfortunate, preventable situation.
Absolutely no traffic enforcement on the Rt 11 racetrack. A minimum of 1 car a week goes over the top of this round about at the intersection. Last life flight was 3 weeks ago.
Really need traffic enforcement on this dangerous stretch of road
Damien says
These Logging trucks are a bit difficult to judge the length of. It is ridiculous they must hang a dirty red rag on the back of their oversized load to somehow indicate how much longer they are than a normal vehicle.
I can buy a LED flashlight at Walmart for a couple bucks, How are they not required to run a simple wire back to the end of their logs and have a strobe light blinking to alert people the load extends THIS far back?
Lance Carroll says
Was the truck loaded or empty is a good question…
Usually trucks are not loaded when pulling into logging area.
Jaii Hein says
Lance. Get ahold of me please… Jaii
Lance Carroll says
Jail…. please post your contact info?
FlaglerLive says
Jaii, Lance, please don’t post contact information at the site. Write us your information here ([email protected]) and we’ll connect you both.
TR says
I don’t want to speculate, but I wonder what the 37 year old driver was doing to distract him from seeing the back of the truck? Could it be possible he had a medical condition causing him to crash. or was it something he was doing that he shouldn’t have been doing? Regardless, it’s sad that such a young man dies because of this accident.
DIQUON THOMPSON says
No…I was actually there and it happened a little differently then what the article says
Jon Cohen says
Diquon, my name is Jon Cohen, my brother in law was the victim in the crash, we are trying to piece together what happened. I would love to speak with you. I know contact info is barred here, so please go to Skylinerep.com and call the contact phone number at the bottom when you see this, that is my direct line.
TR says
What happened to the first half of my original comment? FL is now editing people’s comments because they don’t want to answer a question that I asked in the first half of my original comment. Censorship at it’s best from the left. WOW, way to go Pierre and/or whomever did this on his staff. This will probable get removed as well.
NJ says
BEWARE of Logging Trucks!! As a Retired Logger and Log Hauling Truck Driver from a New England, Log Hauling Trucks should NEVER have a Log LONGER then truck or trailer! WTF??? The Blood of this person KILLED in this NEEDLESS Accident is on the hands FHP, the Loggger Truck owner, the purchaser of the logs, and the land owner where the logs came from!! Time to change the laws for all Trucks Hauling Logs
TR says
How in the world is it everyone else’s fault except the driver who ran into the back of the truck? But like I said earlier, perhaps he had a medical emergency while driving. Or he wasn’t paying close enough attention to what he was doing. The blood is on the victim for rear ending the logging truck, period.
For the People says
This is aweful. Quite frankly can happen to any of us. It’s still fairly dark at that time of the morning, perhaps even some fog. Truck turning left probably blocking the entire road, maybe stopped or nearly stopped to traverse the easement, cab all the way off the road to the left, but leaving a dark unseen trailer in the middle of the 60mph roadway. If the tractor trailer is indeed in the turn then the tail lights cannot be seen. Any side lights on the trailer? Was the truck going to take the left but the car driver was in the process of passing? Were blinkers being used, operational, or even capable of being seen?
No, this is tragic. This is where Morgan and Morgan steps in to provide more safety measures if need be. Ie: Light up the whole world on those logging truck trailers.
Thewholetruth says
Morgan and Morgan won’t do anything unless it lines their own pockets. I came to them with a case recently where my employer didn’t pay me (and many others in the company we worked for) my wages and they turned me down. That employer’s agency is still running, and over a year later we still have not been paid.
TR says
Yea Morgan and Morgan are not for the people unless they will line their own pockets with a big payday. They need to change their saying to “Morgan and Morgan, screw the people”