Driver entrapped in mini-van crash with semi-trailer

For over two hours this morning, Historic City News reporters learned that the northbound lanes of US-1 were closed down due to a serious crash, north of Palencia near Las Calinas Boulevard. Traffic was returned to normal by lunchtime.

St Johns County Fire Rescue responded at approximately 9:00 a.m. to extricate an adult female driver from her mini-van; after it crashed into the rear end of a flat-bed trailer in the roadway ahead of her.

“The patient in the vehicle was heavily entrapped, and partially under the semi,” Fire Rescue spokesman Matthew Sara told reporters this afternoon. “Firefighters and heavy rescue crews spent about one hour freeing the driver from her mini-van.”

There were no other occupants in the vehicle and the semi-tractor trailer operator was uninjured in the collision, according to Sara.

The patient was stabilized for transportation and air lifted to Shands Medical Center Jacksonville Trauma Center by Lifeflight.

Florida Highway Patrol and St Johns County Sheriff’s deputies are conducting an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the collision. No charges have been filed as the investigation continues. Northbound traffic was re-routed to share a single lane with US-1 southbound vehicles while emergency personnel worked to investigate the crash and cleanup the road and make it passable.