Ochopee, FL : One person died after tractor-trailer crash on U.S.41 in Collier County on Tuesday morning, April 12, 2016

A tractor-trailer rig and a box truck crashed on U.S. 41 near the Midway Campground in the Big Cypress National Preserve in Collier County on Tuesday morning, leaving one dead and three injured.

Chief Allen McLaughlin of the Ochopee Fire Department said the tractor-trailer crossed the center-line of 41 before colliding. The woman sleeping in the cab was killed. The driver of the rig was transported with critical injuries by Collier County EMS to Kendall Regional Medical Center in Miami. Two of the six passengers in the box truck were seriously injured.

The two-lane highway at mile marker 53 was still closed as of 4 p.m. Tuesday.

McLaughlin said that the crash, which happened around 6 a.m., looked like the two trucks sideswiped each other.

"It looked like they cut each other open," he said.

The driver of the tractor-tailer rig, Hardeep Singh Mander, 28, of Bakersfield, Calif., was driving the 41 route in a 2017 Peterbuilt for the first time on Tuesday, family members said.

The woman was Mander's girlfriend, Shivani Benimadhu, 22.

Mander was charged with non-criminal failure to maintain a single lane, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.

Also hurt were two of six passengers in the box truck, a 2004 GMC C6C.

A report from the FHP said Pascual Hernandez, 49, of Quincy, Fl., was driving the GMC, but was not hurt.

Vecente Gordillo, 21, of Immokalee was in serious condition at North Collier Hospital and Raul Gonzalez, 26, of Immokalee. was in serious condition in Kendall.

The FHP report said that the semi was heading west when it drifted left across the center line hitting the box truck.

The semi then came to rest on the south shoulder and caught fire.

The two injured passengers in the box truck were ejected into a nearby canal.

Source :
Fatal tractor-trailer crash closes 41 near Ochopee