Tractor-trailer accident results in one fatality
According to a release from the Florida Highway Patrol, a 34 year-old Altha man succumbed to injuries sustained in a single-vehicle accident involving a tractor-trailer on State Road 71 just south of Fleming Curve.
The vehicle was traveling southbound on State Road 71 approaching County Road 387 when the attached trailer began veering off the roadway onto the west shoulder. The driver attempted to regain control, and while doing, so the cab began overturning.
The tractor-trailer came to a final rest on the west shoulder of the roadway. The driver sustained life threatening injuries and was transported to a local area hospital where he succumbed to these injuries and was declared deceased by hospital staff.
According to FHP, his next of kin has been notified.
The Florida Highway Patrol was assisted at the scene by the Gulf County Sheriff’s Office, Gulf County EMS, and Wewahitchka and Dalkeith Volunteer Fire Departments.
Highway 71 remains closed to traffic south of Fleming Curve at this time.
This report will be updated as more information becomes available.
Meet the Editor
David Adlerstein, The Apalachicola Times’ digital editor, started with the news outlet in January 2002 as a reporter.
Prior to then, David Adlerstein began as a newspaperman with a small Boston weekly, after graduating magna cum laude from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. He later edited the weekly Bellville Times, and as business reporter for the daily Marion Star, both not far from his hometown of Columbus, Ohio.
In 1995, he moved to South Florida, and worked as a business reporter and editor of Medical Business newspaper. In Jan. 2002, he began with the Apalachicola Times, first as reporter and later as editor, and in Oct. 2020, also began editing the Port St. Joe Star.