Two women died Monday morning in separate crashes at the same site on Florida’s Turnpike in Orange County. One of them was killed after crashing into a Florida Department of Transportation road ranger truck, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.
The crash took place at around 3:20 a.m. when a 22-year-old Ohio man was driving a pickup truck south on the Turnpike near mile marker 269 in the right lane and struck a sedan stopped on the highway, said the FHP’s Lt. Kim Montes. A 22-year-old Orlando woman was inside the sedan and was pronounced dead at the scene. Troopers aren’t sure why she was stopped.
At around 5 a.m., a 28-year-old road ranger of Groveland was assisting the previous crash and had set up cones around the incident in the right lane with emergency lights on the back of his truck directing traffic into the open, left lane, Montes said. For an unknown reason, a 32-year-old woman of Kissimmee was driving a sedan south in the right lane and through the cones, crashing into the back of the ranger’s truck.
The woman was taken to Health Central and later died, Montes said. The ranger received minor injuries.
The second crash involving the ranger is a part of a pattern of behavior FHP troopers are seeing more of with drivers cutting into crash scenes, according to Montes. Last week, a road ranger was assisting with a crash on State Road 528 when a driver passed through the cones and slammed into the back of the ranger’s Ford F450. The ranger was received minor injuries.
“He was lucky,” Montes said. “We’re seeing more and more incidents at crash scenes with people not slowing down and crashing. We don’t know if people are getting confused or inpatient. There’s a lot going on at a crash site, and you should be slowing down when entering the scene.”
Jpedersen@orlandosentinel.com
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