Highway Patrol reports two serious injuries in seven-vehicle crash on I-75 near River Road
The Florida Highway Patrol has released its official report on Monday morning’s seven-vehicle crash that left two with serious injuries and a portion of Interstate 75 northbound temporarily closed.
The crash, south of River Road near Mile Marker 187, occurred at 10:37 a.m. Monday when a vehicle swerved into the shoulder and collided with another vehicle parked on the shoulder, per the report. The driver and passenger of the first vehicle — a 35-year-old man and a 34-year-old woman, both from Punta Gorda — were transported to Sarasota Memorial Hospital with serious injuries.
ICYMI: 7-vehicle I-75 crash near North Port injures three, snarls traffic
The first, third, fifth, sixth and seventh vehicles involved in the crash were traveling northbound in the left lane when the first vehicle, a sedan, swerved to avoid tire debris. It collided with the second vehicle: a tire-changing company that was servicing the fourth vehicle listed in the report. Both the tire-changing vehicle and the disabled vehicle, listed as a sports utility vehicle, were parked on the shoulder.
The third vehicle also swerved to avoid the debris and collided with the disabled vehicle on the shoulder. The fifth vehicle driving in the left lane suddenly stopped, the report reads, but the sixth vehicle just behind it collided with the rear of the fifth vehicle after failing to stop. The seventh vehicle trailing the sixth also failed to stop and collided with the rear of the sixth vehicle.
The report lists the driver of the sixth vehicle and seventh vehicles — a 31-year-old Cape Coral and a 66-year-old woman from Punta Gorda — as sustaining minor injuries. The crash is one of 3,265 in Sarasota County this year with 1,965 total injuries, according to the Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicle’s crash dashboard.
The Florida Highway Patrol will continue to investigate the crash.
Contact Herald Tribune Growth and Development Reporter Heather Bushman at hbushman@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @hmb_1013.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Highway Patrol releases report on I-75 seven-vehicle crash
