By Compiled from Times wires
Published September 2, 2003
PENSACOLA BEACH - Rescuers searched the Gulf of Mexico on Monday for the body of a man who vanished in the surf at Gulf Island National Seashore.
The 18-year-old resident alien from Mexico was one of three people believed to have drowned Sunday off Florida Panhandle beaches. A fourth drowned Saturday.
"We are just waiting for a body to surface," Greg Pearson, a spokesman for the Escambia County Sheriff's Office, said Monday.
If the missing man drowned, that would bring the death toll on Panhandle beaches to 22 this year.
Conditions remained extremely dangerous for Panhandle swimmers Monday, as they have been since Friday. Workers were handing out pamphlets at the barrier island's toll booths, warning visitors of dangerous surf.
Accident that killed 2 closes highway to Keys
MIAMI - Two people died in a two-car accident Monday on U.S. 1, blocking traffic in and out of the Florida Keys for more than five hours at the end of the Labor Day weekend.
The accident happened at 5:30 a.m. near the Monroe and Miami-Dade county line, Florida Highway Patrol Lt. Julio Pajon said. The highway was reopened about 10:45 a.m.
A car heading north out of the Keys ran off the road in the grassy section. The driver overcorrected, putting him in the path of a van carrying six people that was heading south, Pajon said.
The drivers of both vehicles were killed. The passengers escaped the burning van. The victims' names were not released pending notification of relatives.
