SUV swerves off I-95, wrecks cars on Village
Driver tells authorities he wasn’t distracted prior to losing control.
WEST PALM BEACH — A driver in a three-vehicle crash Thursday morning that saw an SUV travel off Interstate 95 and onto Village Boulevard is facing charges of careless driving and driving without a license, the Florida Highway Patrol said.
The crash closed the road, home to office complexes, shops and apartments, for much of the morning rush hour. One person was taken to a hospital as a precaution, FHP said.
Troopers did not identify the driver facing charges. He told authorities he had not been eating, drinking, using a phone or doing anything distracting when his Ford Explorer left the highway’s southbound lanes and plowed through a chain-link fence, according to FHP.
The crash was the rare one in Palm Beach County where a vehicle leaves the interstate and finds itself on a nearby road. The segment of Interstate 95 between 45th Street and Palm Beach Lakes VIDEO ONLINE
See video from the crash scene at video.PalmBeachPost.com
Boulevard is one of the closest to ground level and nearby streets in the county. In many other areas, either the highway is elevated or set back from other roads.
Authorities said the driver of the Explorer lost control for “no known reason.” The car crashed through the fence onto Village and hit a Toyota RAV4 head-on.
The crash pushed the Toyota into a Mercedes in the other lane, according to authorities. The Explorer then hit the Mercedes.
West Palm Beach Fire Rescue took the RAV4’s driver, a 65-yearold man, to a hospital, but he had no serious injuries, FHP said.
There had previously been a barrier of Australian Pine trees along the interstate for about a mile and a half. The city removed the trees following complaints of the invasive species’ pine needles.
The city is now replacing the pines by planting hedges and Palm trees along the highway.