FLORIDA EMERGENCY SCENE TURNS DEADLY
A deadly crash occurred in the southbound lanes of Interstate 75 Monday afternoon, sending 12 people to the hospital and fatally injuring a well-known outdoors writer from Cross Creek, according to officials. Timothy Ray Tucker, 50, of Cross Creek, a syndicated outdoors columnist who wrote for The Gainesville Sun, was killed in the wreck, according to FHP.
The accident occurred around 2:20 p.m. about a mile south of the Newberry Road exit on I-75. Alachua County Sheriff's Deputy Jody Cail, 30, had stopped his patrol car - with lights flashing - in the left-hand southbound lane in order to protect the scene where a white Dodge Caravan had pulled over in the inside emergency lane because a passenger was having a seizure.
Firefighters and paramedics were at the scene to treat the seizure patient and two of the six occupants of the van had exited the vehicle and were standing around the van, according to FHP. Cail was out of his patrol car trying to wave traffic away from where the paramedics were assisting the seizure patient when Tucker, who apparently did not see the flashing lights, plowed into the back of Cail's Crown Victoria with his black Chevrolet Express van, according to reports.
Cail's patrol car was propelled toward the paramedics and occupants of the white van, and three of the paramedics and one occupant were able to jump across the guardrail and avoid the patrol car. One of the van's occupants, Oneitra Delores Carter, 41, of Gainesville, was critically injured when she was pinned between the patrol car and the guardrail. A firefighter/paramedic, Lt. Drew Dabney, 41, of Gainesville, was also dragged by the patrol car and suffered serious injuries, according to FHP.
After striking the patrol car, Tucker's black van continued down the road, striking the inside guardrail with the left front corner of the vehicle.
Tucker was transported to Shands at the University of Florida with grave injuries and later died. Two children in the van with Tucker, Kyle Tucker, 10, and Justin Maddox, 8, also were transported to the hospital with minor injuries.
All six passengers in the white van, three of which were under the age of 15, were transported to the hospital after the accident - though all except Carter were reported to have minor injuries.
Sgt. Keith Faulk with the Alachua County Sheriff's Office said although their deputy walked away from Monday's accident unscathed, the accident highlighted the dangers law enforcement and emergency officials face on the increasingly crowded interstate. "It's horrible to make a traffic stop or to get out of a vehicle in law enforcement," Faulk said.
"It's absolutely terrifying," he said, adding that many cars are traveling at 80 mph or faster. There is a law in place now that requires vehicles to move over a lane if any law enforcement officer is on the shoulder or in a travel lane, said Megan Crandall with Alachua County Fire Rescue, but she said motorists are easily distracted and can endanger themselves and others.
"I always tell people they need to be as aware of what's going on outside their vehicle as what's going on inside their vehicle," she said. "We're all guilty of it, but people routinely get into a zone
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