Two readers reported to us that there’s an accident on Palmetto Park Road near the Water’s Edge Elementary School and the western entrance to Boca Winds.
Fire Rescue is on scene. Due to the location at the western end of Palmetto, there shouldn’t be any significant traffic impact. But for those who live in Boca Winds, it may be wise to use the other entrance this evening.
Car accidents will never be a nice thing. That’s why it’s important to make sure that you are wearing a seat belt and if you have a young child you should make sure that they are in the correct car seat. Although you may not want to think about it, you should start to think about what type of car insurance you have. Your insurance package needs to include certain things such as recovery after a crash, the covering of legal fees, and a courtesy car, so when you look at car insurance quotes you also need to make sure you look at the terms and conditions. Now we have no way of knowing what type of insurance the people involved in this accident on Palmetto Park Road near Water’s Edge Elementary School had, but that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t start to think about it as well. But, more importantly, let us hope that whoever is involved in this accident is okay. All we can do is send out our best wishes.
Palm Beach County Alerts shared the following with us:
***WEST BOCA*** CAR ACCIDENT — Palmetto Park Rd @ Shorewind Dr (entrance to Boca Falls/Boca Winds) — ?#?PBCFR? R51 onscene of a 2-car collision, moderate damage, all occupants are out and appear okay but are going to be evaluated by Rescue crews
Boca Raton Police reported early this morning that the northbound side of I-95 had been closed due to a fatal accident. From the report it was south of Palmetto Park Road so it would have affected traffic coming north from the Hillsboro interchange, Deerfield Beach and Pompano Beach. Google Maps traffic feature shows the road appears to be cleared as of this writing at 5:30 am. We will update this story if and when more information becomes available.
Last month we reported on an accident where three pedestrians were hit by a car on 441, northbound near West Boca Medical center. We’ve been trying to follow up on this case but PBSO was not helpful initially. Over a month later we finally got a few records. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to give us a lead so we could find out more. For starters we’ve learned the names of the individuals involved in the accident. One of the pedestrians hit was Victor Carneiro Brito, who is 18 years old and reportedly lives in the Boca Entrada apartments. The other two pedestrians, both male, are under 18 so we are not including their names in this story. One is a student in one of the middle schools in West Boca. We’ve also learned that the alleged driver is Brett Knowles (30), of Boca Isles. Mr. Knowles appears to be a 2002 graduate of Olympic Heights High School, and he may work as a barber. Brett Knowles Mr. Knowles has a substantial history in the Palm Beach County courts. This is not a typo – he has 41 cases in the system. Some of them are multiple charges from one incident, but that’s still a lot. Here’s a mugshot from a 2013 arrest for driving with a suspended license: The court record indicates he got 4 days in jail for that one. He had a similar incident in 2012 and got 10 days in jail, which may have been longer because he failed to show up for a court date. Oddly the 2013 incident was charged as a first offense even though it obviously was at least the second offense. Mr. Knowles faced felony drug charges in 2008 and 2010. On the 2008 case he was sentenced to 10 days in jail and on the 2010 cases (2 incidents) he got 6 months. Update: It occurred to us we should check Broward. Mr. Knowles had an incident there in August of 2013. It was a combination of drug possession, a traffic ticket, and criminal driving with a suspended license. In addition to those he’s had a few misdemeanors and numerous traffic tickets. He also demonstrated questionable judgment by posting this on his Facebook page: We spoke with a family member of one of the pedestrians. PBSO informed the family that Mr. Knowles was driving with a suspended license, that police were tipped as to the license plate and met him at his home, where he admitted being the driver. Here’s where it gets interesting: From the court records database, no charges have been filed against Mr. Knowles yet, not even a traffic ticket. A deputy told the family that Mr. Knowles would be in jail within a few days. It’s been over five weeks and he is still free with no charges pending from the incident. Update – PBSO’s Theresa Barbera responded:
This investigation is still active and ongoing. Once completed the state attorneys office will review. These types of investigations take days, weeks and sometimes months.
We tried to reach Mr. Knowles but he hung up on us. To be fair, that’s probably a good decision on his part. All three pedestrians were hurt, ranging from head injuries and broken bones to one undergoing surgery. Both to protect their privacy and because we don’t have enough information, we won’t go into more detail on the extent of the injuries. No one likes to think too much about the possibility of being involved in a car accident, but it is important to remember that if you are caught up in a collision that you suspect was not your fault, you might want to consider filing a lawsuit. Filing a personal injury lawsuit can be an expensive process, but there are a variety of methods to help you cover the financial costs. Nova Legal Funding provides lawsuit loans that can help you to get a personal injury lawsuit off the ground. For more information go to fundmylawsuitnow.com. We still hope to get more information on this case. If any of our readers can provide us with more or put us in touch with anyone involved, please let us know. We can be reached at [email protected].
Readers contacted us about an incident on Palmetto Park Road just east of 441. A reader at the Walmart saw roughly seven Sheriff cars on the north side of Palmetto near Lowe’s and Walgreen’s. After that the cars moved first into the parking area of those stores, and later even more PBSO vehicles were seen by other readers at the West Boca Medical Center emergency room. We contacted PBSO information officer Teri Barbera. She’s not in the office but told us what little she knows at this time: Deputies were chasing a suspect in a case involving theft. The chase led into an area with bees and deputies were stung. They are being treated at the medical center. Ms. Barbera did not know if the thief was caught when we spoke. A reader updated us on what she saw:
I personally was there at the scene during almost the entire time. I was on the North side of Walgreens near the wooded area. The young guy who ran from Police to get away and hide stayed down in the murky area with water until the Canine finally arrived. I only heard one Officer’s request to him to come out before the dog arrived as he would be bitten. All the Officers were standing watching the area where he went in. Nothing was said to try and get him out peacefully before the dog arrived on scene. Must have been 25 minutes before dog arrived. Since I was on the back side, I heard the dog go in and get the guy. I was heading out just after I heard the dog on the South side, making my way around and back to the scene. When I approached, the white guy was laying on the ground with no shirt and handcuffed behind his back. I did see blood on his arm. Then I heard and noticed all the yelling and jumping…OMG…they were all being stung by bees! I felt so sorry for them all. I looked in my car for anything to help with the swarm of bees, but I had nothing to assist with. They quickly put the guy in the Police car and drove off. Many Officers were clearly visibly shaken with all the bees and stings. I felt so bad for them all.
We at West Boca News send our best wishes to the deputies and hope for their quick recovery.
Several readers reported to us about a devastating car wreck on Palmetto Park Road near the Turnpike and Boca Rio Road. A video of the scene is at bottom. You can see the two pieces of the car in the shot below: From what our readers tell us, the car was on the eastbound side and hit a tree just west of the Turnpike. Traffic was backed up westbound past Powerline when we checked around 5:30 pm. Red means traffic is slow or stopped. Update from a reader:
The vehicle was driving eastbound at rapid rate of speed and appears to have been cut off by a car merging left from the middle lane yielding to a large yellow arrow directing 3 lanes of traffic down to one lane. From the short deep skid marks the vehicle veered left and left the roadway, hit the curb, then became airborne with the drivers side door colliding with the large tree (which was was hit with so much force it split the tree in half and caused th tree to uproot). The force caused the car to stress split completely in half – not jaws of life. I doubt the driver survived the crash even with a seatbelt or all airbags that were deployed. Very sad. And yes I am a Crash Investigator. It might be a good idea for this person to seek legal advice, personal injury attorneys usually provide useful information in times like these.
Further update from another reader:
My step dad actually saw the entire accident happen and he pulled over and got out of his car and ran to help the boy he was gushing blood from the side of his neck closer to the back and my step father along with a few brave others managed to stop the bleeding until the ambulance arrived the kid was in his 20s and was conscious and talking when he was taken away ….
We looked at traffic again about 20 minutes before publishing this article and it had gotten better on Palmetto but there were still problems. We also saw problems westbound on Glades approaching the Turnpike, and southbound on I-95 on both sides of Palmetto Park Road. The car was cut into two pieces as part of the rescue effort. Here are a few more reader photos of the scene, with the video at the bottom of the page. We have not seen any information from Fire Rescue or PBSO so we do not have any more details at this time.
