Crime & Safety

Interstate 275 Hit-And-Run Causes Damage, Closes Lanes

The Florida Highway Patrol is looking for witnesses that might help them catch up with a tractor-trailer driver that caused the accident and fled.

Article written by and reported on by Patch associate regional editor Sherri Lonon. 

No one was injured in an early morning Aug. 20 crash along Interstate 275 near the Kennedy Boulevard overpass, but Florida Highway Patrol Troopers say they want to know who’s responsible.

The crash happened around 9:22 a.m. as a flatbed tractor trailer, carrying an oversized load, including a crane, was heading southbound on I-275. When the trailer passed under Kennedy Boulevard, the crane hit the overpass, wrote Sgt. Steve Gaskins in an email to media.

The trailer continued southbound over the Howard Frankland Bridge without stopping, Gaskins said.

While no one was injured in the crash, Gaskins said a 2011 Mazda CX-7 driven by Elizabeth McLaughlin, 56, of Tampa was “severely damaged.” The overpass also suffered damage, which caused concrete to fall on the southbound lanes of I-275, forcing closings for a time.

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Anyone who saw this crash or has information about the tractor-trailer’s driver is asked to call the Florida Highway Patrol at 813-631-4020.

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