Port St. Joe man dies in accident near Wewahitchka
Wewahitchka woman transported to hospital with serious injuries
UPDATE 9:00 P.M. CST — State Road 71 has been reopened to traffic.
ORIGINAL REPORT —
A Port St. Joe man, 61, was fatally injured in a traffic accident on Highway 71 near Wewahitchka Thursday evening.
According to a release from the Florida Highway Patrol, a black sedan was traveling southbound on State Road 71 and failed to slow for a pickup truck and trailer that were turning into a driveway. The sedan rear ended the trailer, and rotated into the northbound lane, colliding with a sport utility vehicle that was northbound on State Road 71.
The driver of the sedan was pronounced deceased on scene, and the driver of the jeep, a 30 year-old Wewahitchka woman, was transported to an area hospital with serious injuries.
The crash is still currently under investigation by the Florida Highway Patrol.
Officials with the Gulf County Sheriff’s Office said they recieved the call to respond to the accident at 6:39 p.m. CST on Dec. 29. It occurred at the intersection of Highway 71 and Forehand road, between Wewahitchka and Dalkeith.
According to a press release from GCSO, State Road 71 is currently closed between County Road 381 and County Road 386 due to the accident.
Meet the Editor
Wendy Weitzel, The Star’s digital editor, joined the news outlet in August 2021, as a reporter covering primarily Gulf County.
Prior to then, she interned for Oklahoma-based news wire service Gaylord News and for Oklahoma City-based online newspaper NonDoc.com during her four years at the University of Oklahoma, from which she graduated in May with degrees in online journalism and political science.
While at OU, Weitzel was selected as Carnegie-Knight News21 Investigative Fellow among 30 top journalism students from around the country. She also was senior editor managing a 12-person newsroom in coordination with Oklahoma Watch, a non-profit news organization in eastern Oklahoma.