A 20-year-old man on foot who may have had a medical episode was struck and killed by two cars as he stepped into northbound traffic on I-95 in Palm Coast early this morning, just south of the intersection with Palm Coast Parkway.
The incident was reported to Flagler County’s 911 dispatch center at 3:02 a.m. According to the Florida Highway Patrol, the man had been standing on the outside shoulder, facing west when, “for an unknown reason, the pedestrian walked into the northbound lanes,” in the path of immediately oncoming traffic.
A 51-year-old Roanoke, Va. woman was driving a Nissan Rogue followed by a 74-year-old man from Collegeville, Pa., driving a Ford Edge. Both SUV vehicles struck the pedestrian, a resident of New York City. Two women, 74 and 72, were passengers in the second car. None of the occupants in the two vehicles were injured. Both drivers pulled over.
The New Yorker had been traveling with a friend in a Nissan. They had pulled over earlier. His cousin told a 911 dispatcher that he’d had a “neurotic episode,” and had been “having issues” and “not acting himself,” according to family members’ descriptions reported to 911. He’d been visiting his brother in Orlando earlier.
The 20-year-old suffered severe, multiple injuries and was pronounced deceased at the scene by a Flagler County Fire Rescue paramedic at 3:18 a.m.
The crash resulted in the 11th fatality on Flagler County roads this year, the first involving a pedestrian. As of Aug. 2 there’d been 836 crashes, 515 of them with injuries, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.
