Sarasota County, FL : Three Venice residents killed in 3-car crash on River Road on Thursday night, March 10, 2016

River Road, considered one of the most dangerous roads in the region, has claimed three more lives.

Three Venice residents were killed Thursday night following a head-on collision just north of the Winchester Boulevard intersection at about 8:25 p.m. Two others were seriously injured in the wreck.

On the night of Feb. 5, an 82-year-old Jacksonville woman died after the SUV in which she was riding was struck by a Port Charlotte man driving a Honda Civic the wrong way. Four others were seriously injured.

Such scenes have become familiar for the emergency responders one the two-lane county-owned commuter road.

“When we do hear an accident that's in the area... everybody gets on high alert,” Englewood Area Fire Control District Battalion Chief Peter Ojeda said. “We kind of prepare for the worst, hope for the best.”

It's not that far more crashes occur on this roadway than others in the area, Florida Highway Patrol spokesman Kenneth Watson said.

Instead, River Road has a combination of circumstances that make it prone to deadlier wrecks.

“When we have a crash on River Road it's usually fairly serious,” Watson said. “It's a rural area so people are traveling at a faster speed than they should be, you couple that with a collision and of course you have a catastrophic event when that occurs.”

Factor that with the fact that most of River Road has no streetlights and only two lanes, and the potential for head-on collisions skyrockets.

Source :
UPDATE: 3 die in 3-car crash on River Road