Multi-Car Crash on Palmetto Park: Photos & Video

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Earlier today there was a major accident on Palmetto Park Road, between Lyons Road and Boca Rio, just west of the Turnpike bridge. Official reports on the 8000 block or near 8300 West Palmetto Park. Our best estimate of the time was sometime around 6:15 or 6:20 pm. It was definitely before 6:30 but we’re not sure how much earlier.

Several readers sent us photos from the scene and two sent us videos, which we have put together into one video, below:

We enhanced the lighting and color in most of the photos.
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We were told this was a four-car crash but as we look at the photos and video we think at least five cars were involved. We count four in the middle of the roadway and one on the side of the road (the first one visible in the video, and also below).
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Despite the tremendous damage we see to the vehicles it is our understanding at this moment that none of the occupants were killed. However, it’s not clear yet if people have been severely injured in this accident or not. If they have, we hope that they take appropiate action by hiring a law firm (hopefully they will get one with a contingency agreement). Let’s just hope they have nothing worse than a scratch though. We are still waiting on confirmtion on what has happened to the people involved. Although we are aware that they have been taking to hospital, this could just be as a precaution and it is unclear about what has actually happened.

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The accident was identified as a “Mass Casualty Incident Level 1” which is actually the lowest level of such incidents, with 5-10 patients. Level 2 MCIs involve 11-20 patients and it goes up from there.
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Of course this incident had a major impact on traffic on Palmetto Park Road and nearby roads as well including Lyons. We hope to update readers in the near future with details about what actually happened.

Real Estate Analysis: Boca Falls

"Case-Shiller data from 1890 to 2012" by YaledUp - I created this chart using data from Case-Shiller index that is freely available on the Standard-Poor website. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Case-Shiller_data_from_1890_to_2012.png#/media/File:Case-Shiller_data_from_1890_to_2012.png
“Case-Shiller data from 1890 to 2012” by YaledUp

We’ve been doing real estate reports for a while now, but to help our readers better understand the market, we’re starting a new series of reports analyzing real estate data to get a better sense of market trends specifically for West Boca.
We’re starting with Boca Falls. We looked at closed real estate transactions in the first half of 2015, and compared them with the second half of 2014 and the first half of 2014 as well. Our spreadsheets are at the bottom of the article for those who want to get into the nitty gritty.


Average transaction prices were up compared to a year ago, but on a $/sq.ft. basis there was not much change. Houses do seem to be selling more quickly.


Overall prices seem steady with some hints of increases. The average transaction price of non-REO* sales in Boca Falls in the first half of 2015 was $556,990, just a few hundred dollars less than the second half of 2015. This is significantly higher than the first half of 2014, which was $495,763.

*REO (generally meaning bank-owned) transactions tend to be lower prices and of less interest to readers thinking of selling their house.

The average price in per square foot hasn’t changed much, staying pretty close to $177/sq.ft. For the more recent two data sets we broke them down by number of floors. Single-story homes sold for roughly $10-20 more per square foot but there is still plenty of variability.
Non-REO homes did move more quickly in the first half of the year, selling on average in 53 days, 23 days quicker than in the previous six-month period. Transaction prices are nearly 95% of the original list price, with a few sales at the listing price. Back in the first half of 2014 we saw houses selling for closer to original list price, suggesting that sellers are asking for more now but not getting much more.
REO homes are selling for closer to 90% of the original list price, and that actually declined in the first half of 2015.
We’ll do some more neighborhoods over the next few weeks and eventually try to tie it all together with a larger analysis of neighborhoods that have a lot in common.
First half (January to June) of 2015
[gview file=”https://westbocanews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/BocaFalls-1H-2015.xls”]
Second half (July to December) of 2014
[gview file=”https://westbocanews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/BocaFalls-2H-2014.xls”]
First half of 2014 – There was only one REO transaction which was removed from this data.
[gview file=”https://westbocanews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/BocaFalls1H-2014.xls”]

Big Crash on Palmetto Park Road – Photos

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There was another major crash on Palmetto Park Road near the bridge over the Turnpike. Readers sent us several photos from the accident scene. The black vehicle hit a tree in the median and knocked it over. You can see the trunk of the tree in the roadway in the photo below.
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One reader who saw it happen said:
“It was terrible a car in the median. A car going east bound totaled. A car going west bound totaled too, and a whole palm tree in the middle of the street going west.”
Another said it looked like “the black car in the tree was traveling high speed and was cut off.”
Below is a shot of the second car, also badly damaged.
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The county scanner indicated a call around 5:30 pm which fits with the timing we have on this:
Screen Shot 2015-05-19 at 5.51.58 PM
Traffic on Palmetto Park westbound was backed up a long way for hours according to several readers, and confirmed by Google Maps:
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So far we haven’t heard about any injuries. We do see airbag deployments in both cars so hopefully injuries were not too bad.
From some accounts there may have been a third car involved but we’re not sure.
More photos below:
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Glades-mageddon Starts Monday

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We previously reported on two repaving projects on Cain Blvd. and Glades Road. The Cain project appears to be done, though it looks like they need to finish painting the lines.
Glades Road is up next.
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The work on Cain caused significant traffic problems. We saw some long backups on Glades Road waiting to turn onto Cain, and readers reported problems getting to Eagles Landing Middle School and Sunrise Park Elementary.
The Glades Road project is bigger so we expect even more traffic problems. Below is a Google Maps rendition of that section of road along with some possible escape routes:

Red lines show where roadwork will take place on Glades. Purple lines show possible escape routes. Map data from Google.
Red lines show where roadwork will take place on Glades. Purple lines show possible escape routes. Map data from Google.

If you’re on the far west end of Glades or Palmetto Park, you’ll generally want to take Palmetto Park while this project is ongoing. Riverside Drive and Ponderosa are good ways to get there from Glades. If you’re going south you can continue on Ponderosa down to Judge Winikoff and get out to 441 from there.
Going north we still think Palmetto Park is the best way out, but there is one other alternative. You can go through South County Regional Park to get to Cain and Yamato. It’s normally slow going through the park so this should only be a last resort.
We expect the Glades Road project will take a few weeks.

Motorcycle Accident at Palmetto & Winikoff: Photos

Reader photo of accident scene
Reader photo of accident scene

We hate to break in on Charlotte the Wonder Puppy’s April Fool’s takeover of West Boca News, but there was a serious accident today.
Several readers reported a motorcycle accident in front of Logger’s Run Middle School. After our initial report on Facebook we received more information.
Also, we happened to be in the area before 7 pm and two vehicles were on the back of a flatbed ready to be taken away. Unfortunately this is not a great angle but it appears the motorcycle suffered heavy damage.
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You can also see airbag deployment and a major gash in the rear quarter panel of an Infiniti coupe.
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With that point of impact on the car, we suspect the accident was caused by the motorcyclist.
Multiple readers reported various details:

I saw it happen. Bike was 20-30 feet up in the air. The rider is lucky to be alive IMO. Thankfully he was wearing a helment and landed on the grass.

He was wearing a helmet thank goodness! I was the second person there. Wrist injuries and some bad road rash. He was very lucky.

As of right now, he has 2 broken wrists and is stable.

West Boca student he said. He was alert.

The incident appears to have occurred at or near the southeast corner of the intersection of Judge Winikoff and Palmetto Park Road, with the motorcyclist’s body traveling east from the point of impact.