Four crashes on U.S. 1 in the Lower Keys over the weekend – including two head-on collisions – sent multiple people to hospitals with serious injuries, caused temporary full roadblocks and backed up traffic on the only major highway that runs through the island chain.
One small stretch of U.S. 1 seemed cursed over the weekend. Three instances of vehicles smashing into each other happened between mile markers 11-14 of Overseas Highway within the 48 hours, on Jan. 13-14.
The Trauma Star helicopter air ambulance was called to at least two incidents, including the first head-on crash of the weekend reported by the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office on Saturday, Jan. 13.
At 11:20 a.m., a pickup truck driven by a 28-year-old man from Lynn Haven, Florida, was southbound approaching MM 13 when the truck entered the northbound lane “for an unknown reason,” and collided head-on with a van, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.
“No skid marks were noted at this scene,” the FHP’s brief report said.
Five people were sent to hospitals and Trauma Star responded to airlift patients. Details on those taken to the mainland weren’t provided in the FHP crash report and conditions weren’t available.
FHP refuses to release names of people involved in crashes, whether or not they are injured, citing a crime victims’ rights amendment known as Marsy’s Law. Voters approved the amendment in 2018 and it took effect in January 2019.
The pickup truck driver was critically injured and a male passenger from Panama City, whose age was not provided, had serious injuries. Both were wearing seat belts, FHP said.
Inside the van were a 43-year-old man behind the wheel and two passengers: a 35-year-old woman and a 4-year-old girl. All three people in the van live in Melbourne, Florida.
The female passenger – the only one FHP said was not wearing a seat belt – suffered critical injuries, while the driver had serious injuries. The girl’s injuries were listed as minor in the FHP report.
A full roadblock closed the road for about a half an hour and lanes weren’t completely reopened until nearly 1 p.m.
But then, just after 1 p.m., MCSO reported another crash at MM 11 that delayed traffic even further. FHP said deputies handled this one because troopers were tied up near MM 13.
At 1:18 p.m Saturday, MCSO posted on Facebook that the road was open at MM 11. No injuries from this crash were reported.
Another head-on crash
On the morning of Jan. 14, a second head-on collision on U.S. 1 was reported by law enforcement, this time at MM 14.
At 8:45 a.m., a 2022 Ford Mustang headed north with a 57-year-old driver and an 8-year-old passenger, both from Sweden, crossed the double yellow center line and smacked into the guardrail on the southbound shoulder, according to FHP.
But the Mustang didn’t stop there.
The Mustang “then entered back into the southbound travel lane” right into the front of a southbound 2005 Hyundai Accent driven by a 28-year-old from Key West with three other people inside.
After the collision, the back end of the Hyundai collided with the concrete barrier on the northbound shoulder.
The two Swedish travelers in the Mustang were taken to Lower Keys Medical Center with minor injuries.
Meanwhile, the driver and two others in the Hyundai were airlifted to Miami with serious injuries. Both the driver and the backseat passenger went to the Kendall Regional Medical Center, while the front seat passenger was flown to Jackson South Medical Center.
A fourth passenger in the Hyundai’s backseat was treated for minor injuries at Lower Keys Medical Center.
“All occupants are in stable condition,” FHP said in the crash report released the day after the crash.
Jeep rolls over twice
A fourth crash over the 48-hour period on the Overseas Highway in the Lower Keys happened Sunday at MM 5.5. But no one was taken to the hospital.
This time, it was a single vehicle that rolled over, leaving the 16-year-old driver shaken and badly bruised by the seat belt she wore. She returned safely to her family, who declined medical treatment.
The teen was driving a Jeep Wrangler when she went to change lanes only to find a vehicle approaching “super fast” behind her in the lane she was trying to enter, her mother, Kristen Livengood, told Keys Weekly.
The teen moved back into her lane but she overcorrected and the tires went into a skid, Livengood said. The Jeep then flipped over completely – twice – and landed on the tires. Photos of the Jeep showed it so coated with scratches that it appeared to be smeared with mud.
Livengood credited her daughter surviving the crash with scratches and major bruises to seatbelts, the Jeep’s roll bars, “and a smart girl who knew to cross her arms when it started spinning and flipped,” she wrote on Facebook.
