DeLand, FL : 63-year-old Cynthia Heckman killed in three-vehicle collision at State Road 472 at Minnesota Avenue on Monday afternoon, May 16, 2016

A DeLand woman lost her life in a five-vehicle crash along State Road 472 near Minnesota Avenue, between DeLand and Orange City, on Monday afternoon.

Cynthia Heckman, 63, died after her 2016 Ford Mustang was rear-ended by a septic truck and was sandwiched between it and a tractor-trailer.

The crash happened around 2 p.m. Monday. Three of the four other occupants in the four other vehicles involved suffered only minor injuries, while one was uninjured.

The collision remains under investigation, but as described in a preliminary Florida Highway Patrol report, the sequence of events was as follows:

The tractor-trailer, traveling west on S.R. 472, slowed to make a right turn. A Ford pickup truck towing a flatbed trailer was behind him but changed lanes as the tractor-trailer slowed, placing the pickup truck directly in front of the septic truck.

That caused the driver of the septic truck to apply his brakes. The truck then rear-ended Heckman’s Ford Mustang.

As the Mustang was pushed forward by the septic truck, it was driven into the back of the tractor-trailer and sandwiched between the two.

The septic truck then struck a Kia SUV on its driver’s side. Both vehicles ended up in a ditch on the northwest corner of the intersection, where the Kia SUV overturned onto its roof.

Source :
Five-vehicle crash kills DeLand woman on State Road 472