accident – Page 9 – West Boca News

Serious Accident Closes 441 Northbound: Scene Photos & Video

Update: Per a reader the road is still closed as of 11:40 pm on Friday night.

A friend alerted us tonight to an accident scene on the northbound side of 441 near Target and West Boca Medical Center. We went to the scene and took several photos as well as video. A brief video summary is below, but it was early in our investigation and we learned more afterward.

We also received the following thanks to Palm Beach County Alerts:

***WEST BOCA*** Pedestrian Accident — Central Park Blvd S @ State Road 7 — R51 onscene in front of West Boca Hospital, vehicle hit multiple pedestrians, Incident Commander advising they have 2 Trauma Alerts going to Delray Trauma Center by ground & 1 other patient non-critical — Tac 4A

Here’s a map showing the location:

At the scene this reporter was able to see various items of debris in the roadway and on the shoulder. In particular there was a shoe or sneaker, a flip-flop, and a hat, all in the travel portion of the roadway.

I also saw two different skateboards, an orange one just off the shoulder at the south end of the scene, and a green one further into the grass at the north end of the debris area. In the picture below, the orange skateboard is at the lower left corner and you may be able to see the shoe in roughly the middle of the picture.

I’m not sure why this worked with my camera but the shot below gives a good sense of the amount of debris in the roadway behind one of the cars that was on the scene:

Later on deputies from PBSO were spray-painting the roadway where the items were and then collecting the items as evidence, as seen in the two videos below:

Piecing it all together based on my experience in handling criminal and personal injury cases including accident reconstructions, certain details stand out. First of all the shoe, flip-flop and hat in the roadway suggest that there wasn’t just one pedestrian hit by a vehicle but multiple and they were in the roadway when they were hit. It is somewhat common for a pedestrian to be literally knocked out of their shoes when hit by a car. In this case it would appear that two different pedestrians were hit, as it seems unlikely that one person would be wearing a flip-flop on one foot and a shoe on the other. For legal help with a pedestrian accident, you may wish to reach out to a law firm like Ruloff, Swain, Haddad, Morecock, Talbert & Woodward, P.C. to help you out.
There is not much lighting on the northbound side of the road and it may have been difficult for a driver to see skateboarders crossing the road in the dark. We were notified of the accident after 8:30 pm and it was dark.
Shortly before we left the scene the individuals we saw at the side of the road were allowed to leave. It’s unclear if they were just witnesses, or if one of their vehicles had been involved in the collision. I did not see any damage to either vehicle though the lighting was poor and I was not allowed to get close to the vehicles.
I should also note that a reader told us:

Two teenagers on the ground by west boca medical center. Looks like they must have been hit by a car or something.

Those who have been the victim of injuries sustained by being hit by a vehicle may wish to speak with lawyers such as the ones at GJEL.com.
Also, per CBS 12: “Three people were riding skateboards in the bike lane when they were hit by the vehicle. The vehicle then fled the scene and the driver was later caught, according to The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office.”

Accident at Lyons & Yamato: 4 pm?

A reader sent us a couple photos of an accident at the intersection of Yamato and Lyons. You can see the Whisper Walk sign in the background of the above photo. Deputies and a tow truck were on scene.
— Another reader advises it was at Lyons and Astaire —
For the location, see the map below:

And here’s a photo of the damage to one of the cars:

This was reported to us a little after 4 pm.

Accident at Marina and US-441: Video & Photos

It seems like all we have to do to get a story is stay near 441. Yesterday we saw something on 441 at the north end of Mission Bay Plaza. Earlier today we were on our way into Parkland and we saw an accident scene at Marina (SW 18th) and 441. This was shortly before 1 pm.

We had time to do a short video at the scene:

What was reported to us was that the driver of the white Lexus SUV admitted to being distracted by his cell phone. Allegedly he ran a red light coming out from gas station, causing a collision with the smaller white Mitsubishi Outlander that was traveling southbound on 441.

The panorama shot below came out a little odd.

Fortunately it appears there were no injuries. Unfortunately most drivers disregarded Florida’s “Move Over” law, as can be seen in the video above. We often criticize unnecessary laws and police misconduct, but this is an important law that protects our first responders when they’re in a difficult and dangerous situation. When you see the flashing lights, please move over and give them space.

Postal Crash at Military & Potomac: Photos

Two readers sent us photos of a crash scene earlier today involving a postal vehicle. It was at the intersection of Military Trail and Potomac.

Readers described it as a head-on collision and the postal worker was injured but not badly.

Postal worker was cut up and bandaged on the scene, but otherwise okay. The older man who hit him had no injuries.
The older man cut over Military southbound into the path of the mail carrier and hit him, causing the mail carrier to then hit the pole to the traffic light.

Child Hit By Car Near Lyons

One of our readers reports a child was hit by a car in Sandalfoot Squire, a community on SW 3rd Street near Lyons Road in Sandalfoot Cove. We have confirmation of the story from the Palm Beach Post.
PBSO and Fire Rescue found a car on top of a young boy, who was taken to Delray Medical Center. Our reader reports that they were on the scene fast and got the injured child on a stretcher and on the way to the hospital in a rush.
Another reader reports: “He has a concussion, staples, scrapes, sore, etc. As far as they can see no broken bones. He is in bad shape though. At first not sure if [he] would make it, but just pray please. He’s only 3.”

In our earlier Facebook post there was some heated discussion about whether parents watch their children closely enough, whether it was an appropriate thing to discuss at a time like this, and whether it was unprofessional for us to post the story as we did.

Post by West Boca News.

We’re not professional journalists. We’re amateurs and we’re learning. We don’t make any significant money on this venture and are essentially working as volunteers, though we do hope it will grow into something more.
In the articles we write on the West Boca News website we do try to be more professional. In Facebook posts like this we post more raw and early material from readers, which sometimes leads to other readers sending us more information so that we can write a complete story on the website. That community input helps us write better articles.
One commenter pointed to the Palm Beach Post article as “professional.” It had three sentences and no pictures. If professional means that, we hope we never get there.