Vehicles fall into 30-foot ravine after Florida truck crash

A 35-year-old driver is injured and two vehicles are severely damaged following a serious truck crash on I-95 in Florida. According to one of the motorists involved, the accident started when he attempted to veer onto the shoulder in order to prevent a fast and aggressive semi-truck cab from striking his car from behind. That man, 46, was not hurt, though the truck's driver was transported to a medical facility to be treated for severe injuries sustained in the crash.

A source from the Florida Highway Patrol said the accident occurred at around 5 a.m. when a sedan and freight liner collided, causing them both to veer right and fall about 30 feet into a shallow retention pond. Investigators do not appear to have been able to collect witness reports of the crash, but said that tire marks suggest that the sedan's driver lost control of his car and slammed into one of the truck's tires, possibly locking the vehicles together and causing them to travel off the roadway and into the nearby ravine. The semi reportedly traveled all the way across the 30-foot pond at the bottom of the hill.

The truck's driver told investigators the car struck him as he was traveling at approximately 70 miles per hour, though the other driver said he had only been attempting to avoid a potential collision by pulling to the side of the road to let the semi pass. Police say tire marks near the crash site suggest that the car swerved onto the shoulder and then back onto the road just prior to the crash.

Following the crash, the uninjured driver escaped his vehicles, made his way out of the ravine and attracted the attention of passing motorists in order to seek help; authorities say the heavily damaged vehicles were not visible from the roadway. Emergency response personnel arrived promptly and extricated the truck's driver from his cab and sent him to receive treatment. The accident remains under FHP investigation.

Source: FlaglerLive.com, "Car and Semi Tangle on I-95 and Dive Down 30-Foot Ravine in Sunday Morning Wreck," Jan. 20, 2013