Here’s what we know about a traffic death that happened along a busy roadway in northwest Marion County on Saturday afternoon.
A two-vehicle traffic crash.
Southbound on U.S. 441, mere yards away from Northwest 77th Street.
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Florida Highway Patrol troopers on scene said a semitractor-trailer was in the right southbound lane of U.S. 441. The big rig stopped at the traffic light at Northwest 77th St.
The light turned green and the driver drove away. The driver told troopers that as the vehicle was moving, she heard a loud thud behind her.
Thinking a tire had blown out, she slowed down and moved over to the side of the roadway. The driver said when she came out, she noticed a pickup truck had slammed into the back of her semitractor-trailer.
Authorities said the driver of the Ford F-150 pickup truck, a male, was killed in the wreck. The truck driver was shaken, but not injured.
Officials said the victim was driving above the posted 50 mph speed limit. Although the patrol no longer releases the names of people involved in crashes, they did say the pickup driver is a man. The other driver is 32, from Jacksonville.
Marion County Fire Rescue spokesman James Lucas said his agency was assigned to the crash at 3:19 p.m. Saturday and arrived at 3:26 p.m. The victim was pronounced deceased at 3:27 p.m.
Fire rescue officials had to extricate the pickup driver. Southbound traffic was detoured so troopers could investigate the crash.
Troopers said the big truck is an Amazon contract trailer. It left Jacksonville and was traveling to Orlando with Amazon packages.
Contact Austin L. Miller at austin.miller@starbanner.com or @almillerosb
Driver of pickup truck killed in two-vehicle crash on U.S. 441 North – Ocala
