88-year-old injured in five-car crash near toll bridge

By Observer Staff
| 4:00 a.m. April 4, 2011

Charges on Kenneth Norton, 56, of Palm Coast, are pending a blood test, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.

Palm Coast Observer
News

An 88-year-old Palm Coast woman was in critical condition Sunday afternoon following a five-car pile-up crash at the Hammock Dunes toll bridge, according to state troopers.

Wilma Hopler, 88, of Palm Coast, was stopped at the toll plaza on Palm Coast Parkway in her 2005 Ford Focus, heading eastbound. There were two other cars lined up behind her.

Kenneth Norton, 56, also of Palm Coast, was nearing the stopped cars at a high rate of speed in his 2003 Dodge SUV, according to the Florida Highway Patrol report.

Norton failed to stop in time to avoid the stopped vehicles, and slammed into Hopler, causing a domino-effect crash, the report states.

Charges are pending a blood test on Norton, according to the report.

Hopler endured critical injuries, and all drivers and passengers were wearing seat belts.