SAVANNAH, Ga. — A Fort Pierce man died Tuesday afternoon after the motorcycle he was riding crashed on a Georgia highway, according to Savannah-Chatham police.

At 3:25 p.m., first responders were called to the westbound lanes of Georgia 204 near Interstate 95 on a report of two people injured in a motorcycle crash, the Savannah Morning News reported. (more…)

A 41-year-old bicyclist died after riding into the path of a 2005 Nissan Tuesday night, according to a crash report released Wednesday.

Abel Fierros Hernandez, of the 300 block of North 12th Street, was riding a bicycle about 8 p.m. Tuesday as Veronica Keith Darrisaw, 36, drove the Nissan east on Orange Avenue approaching South 22nd Street.

A witness said Hernandez came off a sidewalk and rode into the path of Darrisaw’s vehicle. The witness said she also had to swerve to avoid Hernandez, who looked as if he had difficulties “steadying himself.” Hernandez’s bicycle didn’t have lights.
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PORT ST. LUCIE — Police investigators have been out early this morning at the intersection where a hit-and-run driver struck a 14-year-old boy Monday morning near his bus stop.

The investigators have been asking other students if they saw anything that could locate the driver of the vehicle.

The incident sent the boy to St. Mary’s Medical Center with a fractured pelvis, bruised spleen and punctured lung, though he is expected to make a full recovery, officials said.
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ST. LUCIE COUNTY — A 25-year-old Fort Pierce resident was killed Saturday night in a three-vehicle accident in northern St. Lucie County, according to a Florida Highway Patrol report.

Juan Alberto Lopez was northbound on King’s Highway just before 10 p.m. when he lost control of his vehicle about 500 feet south of Palomar Parkway and crossed into the southbound lane into the path of two vehicles, according to the report.

The first vehicle, driven by Port St. Lucie resident Lacy Catherine Mahon, 17, swerved and hit the left front of Lopez’ vehicle. Mahon and her passenger, Fort Pierce resident Taryn M. Horvath, also 17, sustained minor injuries.
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FORT PIERCE — A trauma surgeon and nurse on their way to work at Lawnwood Regional Medical Center & Heart Institute on Saturday became first responders at an accident scene.

Dr. Alex Funicello, who was returning from a Hutchinson Island condo to finish rounds at Lawnwood, found the base of South Bridge blocked with police cars and accident tape.

Raymond Chew, 47, lay in the intersection of Seaway and Indian River drives, his motorcycle nearby and his helmet loose but still on. No emergency medical crews had arrived when Funicello arrived.

So, the trauma surgeon went to work, assessing the patient.
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FORT PIERCE — The driver of a school bus involved in a Monday morning crash at 25th Street and Orange Avenue was at fault in the incident that sent a woman and a student to a local hospital, according to the Fort Pierce police.

The St. Lucie County school bus, driven by Maria Rossi, 60, was eastbound on Orange Avenue about 6:45 a.m. as a 1998 Nissan Sentra driven by 55-year-old Claudiette Compere traveled west. (more…)

PORT ST. LUCIE — A woman was taken to a local trauma center in serious condition Monday after a crash on Savanna Club Boulevard east of U.S. 1, a St. Lucie County Fire District spokeswoman said.

Fire district crews were called about 6 a.m. to the incident in the 1800 block of Savanna Club Boulevard and took a woman in her 20s to a local trauma center in serious condition, Fire District spokeswoman Catherine Chaney said.

The woman had been driving a 4-door Volkswagen at the time of the incident. No one else was in the vehicle at the time.

Details on how the crash occurred were not immediately available.

By Will Greenlee

A man was killed after he rolled a sports car on Interstate 95 in St. Lucie County on Saturday morning, authorities said.

Kenneth A. McClinton, 67, of Jensen Beach was heading northbound in a 1999 Ford Mustang Cobra about 11:15 a.m. but failed to negotiate a curve on the interstate north of West Angle Road, according to a bulletin circulated this morning by the Florida Highway Patrol.

The Mustang left the roadway, collided with a metal guardrail on the western side of the interstate and then rolled several times.

McClinton died on the road.

The crash remained under investigation on Sunday, the bulletin said.

STUART — The image of a man’s arm wrapped around her front tire still haunts Jessica Leslie eight years later.

It was November 2001 when a 20-year old Leslie of Boca Raton was coming back from an evening of partying that she decided to drive home drunk. She told her story to a crowd of about four dozen at a Thursday community program at the Martin County Administrative Center on the dangers of drinking and driving.

Leslie never made it home but ran over Patrick McDonough, 41, killing him. (more…)

STUART — Nine years ago, a drunk Donald Flewellen drove a stolen van across the center line, causing a collision that killed two people and left illegal Guatemalan immigrant Luis Jimenez permanently brain damaged.

Less than four months after his December release from prison for two counts of DUI manslaughter, authorities say Flewellen, 52, was behind the wheel of a borrowed car and caused a hit-and-run crash with property damage in Fort Pierce.

Already charged with two counts of violating his supervised release, court papers show when Flewellen returns to court Aug. 17, he’ll face additional charges of leaving the scene of a crash with property damage and driving on a revoked driver’s license related to an April 5 traffic collision.
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