 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
Slick roads, high speeds, bad day
By RYAN DAVIS
© St. Petersburg Times, Parked in the median of Interstate 75 attending to yet another accident, Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Eric Hellstrom aimed his radar at passing traffic. Seventy-one. 67. 70, the gun read in succession. "Slow down," Hellstrom said. "It's that simple. Just slow down. It's insane to be going even the speed limit in these conditions." Wet roads contributed to four accidents -- and possibly a fifth -- in one hour early Wednesday afternoon along the 5-mile stretch of I-75 between the Pasco/Hillsborough County line and State Road 54. The speed limit there is 70 mph. "All day long, people going in the ditches," said FHP Community Service Officer Crystal Albury as she attended to one of the wrecks. "People don't slow down. They think they can go the same speed all the time." In all, three semitrailer trucks, two cars, a minivan and a Ryder truck were involved in four accidents. Two other cars were involved in what was apparently a fifth wreck. No one was seriously injured in any of the crashes, troopers said, but ambulances took two people to hospitals. Pasco County Fire Rescue dispatchers received the first accident call at 12:07 p.m., they said. A southbound car cut in front of a semitrailer, which clipped the car's back end and sent the car skidding into the grassy median, Hellstrom said. The car's driver was taken to the hospital with minor injuries. That accident caused southbound traffic to stop -- some not soon enough. A semitrailer hauling sand skidded off the right side of the road and tipped on its right side as it tried to slow for the stopped traffic. A couple of vehicles back, Joe Micelli, who is moving from Maryland to Port Charlotte, was hauling his possessions in a Ryder truck. He could not stop as fast as the truck in front of him so he headed for the side of the road. "I just started downshifting and hitting the brakes and rode it into the grass and thanked God I was alive," Micelli said. After about a half hour, he finally freed the yellow truck from the roadside mud, using a shovel from county fire rescue workers. Behind Micelli, it happened again. A minivan slid off the road while stopping, swerved back onto the road and clipped a car. The minivan driver was taken to the hospital with minor injuries. Only one of the wrecks affected northbound traffic. A red car cut off semitrailer driver Debbie Smith, who said there was no way she could stop on a slick road -- so she veered to the median where her truck jackknifed. "These things go right over a car," Smith said. "I'd rather go into a ditch than hit a car."
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 
|
From today's Pasco Times |
