LABELLE, FL. -- Two are dead in a crash Saturday at 7:40 p.m. in Hendry County. From the FHP report:
Vehicle 1 driven by a 61 year old male from LaBelle, with a 59 year old female passenger from LaBelle was stopped for a stop sign on northbound Birchwood Road at State Road 80.
Vehicle 2, a pick up truck driven by a 36 year old male from Miami with a 35 year old male and 42 year old male from Miami was traveling west on State Road
Vehicle 1 failed to yield to State Road 80 traffic. The front of Vehicle 2 collided with the right side of Vehicle 1.
Vehicle 1 rotated and came to rest on the north shoulder of State Road 80.
Driver 1 and Passenger were pronounced deceased on scene. Driver 2 and one passenger had minor injuries.
The crash remains under investigation.
Vehicle 1 failed to yield to State Road 80 traffic. The front of Vehicle 2 collided with the right side of Vehicle 1.
Vehicle 1 rotated and came to rest on the north shoulder of State Road 80.
Driver 1 and Passenger were pronounced deceased on scene. Driver 2 and one passenger had minor injuries.
The crash remains under investigation.
Sadly, the way state roadway management evolves is that they wait for the body-count to reach a sufficiently horrific level until they install a traffic light. In my opinion, the time for improved traffic control of some sort at that intersection (and perhaps Collnswood) arrived years ago. This tragedy should reopen the discussion.
ReplyDeleteThe speeds of west-bound traffic on SR80 is high and the width of the highway is considerable, making it a sometimes dangerous proposition for Birchwood traffic to cross 80 or make the turn towards town.
In addition, I have been telling people for the past week that the potential for Hurricane Ian to inflict additional death and injury in LaBelle is VERY HIGH. There is additional traffic and I have observed many instances of excessive speed, unsafe truck load management, and lost cars & trucks stopping at random locations to get their bearings, including idling in the east-bound SR80 turn lane feeding north-bound Birchwood.
An almost continuous stream of small flatbeds carrying one vehicle and towing a second have been passing through town. Once they leave town east-bound on 80 they take on speeds higher than what is really safe. My assumption is that these are storm surge and wind damaged vehicles totaled by insurance companies. There must be tens of thousands of cars requiring transport and disposal/restoration. Two of the trucks carrying these hurricane cars almost rear-ended me last night as I was trying to navigate the emergency vehicles that were blocking multiple access roads off of 80 as part of the deadly accident scene control.