Marathon, FL : Driver ‘serious, but stable’ after a crash in Key Largo on Friday morning, March 17, 2017

A Florida City man was airlifted to a mainland hospital Friday morning after slamming his pickup into the back of a tractor trailer hauling pea rock.

The crash happened in the southbound lanes of U.S. 1 at mile marker 94 when Ismael Alcaraz, 44, did not slow down in time to avoid hitting a Freightliner truck that decelerated for traffic ahead, according to a Florida Highway Patrol report. The impact caused significant damage to Alcaraz’s 2010 Chevrolet Sivlerado and caused rocks from the tractor trailer to spill out on the road.

The Freightliner driver, Omar Lopez Gomez, 53, was not injured. Alcaraz, who the FHP says was not wearing a seatbelt, was seriously injured and flown to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center. His condition Friday morning was listed in the FHP report as “serious, but stable.”

Alcaraz also faces a careless driving charge.

The southbound lanes of U.S. 1 at mile marker 94 were closed for about an hour and 20 minutes while first responders treated Alcaraz and FHP troopers investigated the crash.

Source :
Driver ‘serious, but stable’ after Friday morning crash in Key Largo