Auto accidents are the leading cause of death for young people aged 16 to 20, but some forward-thinking people in Orange County are trying to change this fact. The Florida Safety Council announced recently that high school students in Orange County would be able to apply for free driver training. This free training will include six hours of behind-the-wheel driving lessons in traffic and driver education classroom courses.
“We actually take them out to the expressway. We don’t cut them loose until they’ve driven in traffic on I-4 and the 408 expressway,” said Glenn Victor, Florida Safety Council spokesperson.
Read more…
A Florida Central News article reports that officials with the Florida Highway Patrol are investigating a recent five-vehicle accident in Lakeland that claimed the lives of three people. FHP officials say that the accident occurred around 4 pm on U.S. Highway 98 just south of Rockridge Road when a Chevrolet pickup truck crashed head-on with a motorcycle. They say the pickup was driven by a 65-year-old woman who veered into the path of a motorcycle operated by a 55-year-old man.
The pickup’s driver was killed in the accident, as was the motorcycle’s passenger-a woman whose identity and age was not released by the FHP when the article was published. The 55-year-old motorcycle rider suffered critical injuries in the accident and was flown to Tampa General Hospital in a helicopter. The 51-year old driver of a Ford pickup truck behind the motorcycle also died in the accident. FHP officials say that he swerved to avoid the initial accident, but crashed into the left front of the oncoming Chevy pickup. The force of the collision caused the Ford pickup to land on its roof.
Read more…
An article published on TheLedger.com reports that a man, a pregnant woman and an infant were killed in mid-September on U.S. 27 near Davenport. The Polk County Sheriff’s Office reported that the infant had suffered critical injuries and was flown to Arnold Palmer Children’s Hospital in Orlando, but died later in the evening. Officials investigating the accident say that the accident occurred around 6:40 in the evening when a car turning east at U.S. 27 onto Citrus Ridge Drive was struck by a van headed north on U.S. 27.
There were four people in the car, including the infant. Law enforcement officials investigating the accident had not released the names of those involved in the car accident pending the notification of family members. The pregnant woman and the baby were both ejected from the car when it was struck, and a man inside the car died in the car from his injuries. Deputies said the pregnant woman’s body was found in the ditch on the east side of U.S. 27 and the car’s driver was taken to Lakeland Regional Medical Center with injuries described as traumatic.
Read more…
Law enforcement officials investigating a single-car accident that claimed the lives of three people say that the car’s impact was so intense that people calling 911 to report the accident said that the car blew up. An article on News-JournalOnline.com said that one male and two female passengers in the car were killed instantly around 8:30 on the evening of September 2, 2009, in the southbound lane of Nova Road just north of 15th Street in Holly Hill.
"I hate to say it’s the worst I’ve seen in 30 years as a police officer, but it is," Holly Hill Police Chief Mark Barker said. "It looks like an IED (improvised explosive device) in Iraq went off. The car was completely split in half—the front end landed 30 feet from the back end of the car."
Read more…
