Dylan Osborne, a 17-year-old Flagler Palm Coast High School student on a bicycle, was killed in a collision with a dump truck and at a separate location in Palm Coast a 60-year-old man was died in an almost simultaneous three-vehicle crash in mid-afternoon Monday.
The crash involving Osborne was reported to Flagler County’s 911 center at 4:17 p.m.
According to the Florida Highway Patrol, a dump truck was stopped at the stop sign on Pine Grove Drive, facing Belle Terre Parkway. Osborne was on a motorized bicycle, riding south on the sidewalk along the east side of the parkway.
The driver of the dump truck “accelerated,” according to FHP, to make a right and head north, and collided with Osborne and his bike. The student was dragged along Belle Terre until the truck stopped in the median, north of Pine Grove.
That intersection has been the scene of several grave and fatal crashes involving vehicles, or vehicles and bicycles and motorcycles. The intersection is one of several along Belle Terre due for safety improvements. Deceleration turning lanes will be added, though it is unlikely that particular improvement would have prevented Monday’s crash.
Osborne suffered severe head injuries. A physician was almost immediately at the scene and provided CPR before rescue units arrived. A paramedic declared Dylan Osborne deceased at the scene within 10 minutes of the report of the crash, according to 911 dispatch notes.
According to a crowdfunding page set up by Osborne’s family members, he had been on his way to his first job. He had four siblings and had just begun his junior year.
A spokesperson for the Flagler County school district said a crisis response team was ent to the school today to counsel students who request it. It was the second time in less than three weeks that the Flagler Palm Coast High School community–and the community at large–was contending with the loss of a student. On Aug. 31, Felicity Cate, 16, took her own life at her Z-Section home, according to a sheriff’s report.
The crash that took the life of the 60-year-old Palm Coast resident had taken place minutes earlier: it was reported to the dispatch center at 4:10 p.m., and was immediately reported as an apparent medical episode: the driver had “passed out,” according to 911 notes.
According to the FHP’s preliminary investigation, the driver was driving an SUV, traveling west on Palm Coast Parkway when, nearing the intersection with Old Kings Road, his vehicle struck two other vehicles in quick succession that had been stopped at the light–sideswiping one, then striking the rear of the other.
A 61-year-old man and a 54-year-old man were driving the vehicles stuck in the sequence. Neither was hurt. The SUV driver was not breathing when paramedics arrived at the scene. A emergency helicopter was summoned, then cancelled, and the man was transported to AdventHealth Palm Coast, where he was pronounced deceased.
