- April 26, 2024
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Updated 9:30 a.m. May 10:
Three people were killed and four more were injured May 7 when a maroon sport utility vehicle carrying seven people lost control on northbound Interstate 95 near the Matanzas Woods Parkway exit in northern Flagler County, according to the Flagler County Sheriff's Office.
Florida Highway Patrol officers were dispatched to the crash site at about 2 p.m. and arrived at 2:13 p.m. The four people who were injured in the crash were taken to Halifax Health Medical Center in Daytona Beach.
The victims, all residents of Immokalee, Florida, were in a 2002 Ford Explorer heading north in the inside lane when the Explorer's driver, 25-year-old Mario Lopez Roblero, tried to merge into the center lane, according to a Florida Highway Patrol news release.
A 2013 Ford F-150, driven by 66-year-old Varnville, South Carolina resident Lonnie Grant, was merging into the center lane at the same time. The F-150 was further into the lane than the Explorer, a witness told FHP troopers.
Grant steered back into the outside lane, but Roblero over-corrected, and the SUV veered across the road's northbound lanes and then flipped multiple times before coming to rest on its roof on the grass shoulder east of I-95, facing west, according to the news release. Grant pulled over onto the shoulder and stopped.
Of the three people who died, one was 22-year-old Vigai Lopez Roblero, who died at Florida Hospital Flagler, and the others were 19-year-old Roberto V. Morales and 17-year-old Adonias Gonzalez Vasquez, who both died at the scene of the crash.
Mario Lopez Roblero had critical injuries, and 25-year-old Maribel Velasquez Perez, 18-year-old Esterbano Perez Roblero and 4-year-old William I. Lopez had serious injuries.
The crash shut down all northbound lanes of I-95 north of Matanzas Woods Parkway for about two miles, until one lane reopened at about 4:20 p.m. All lanes reopened at about 6:45 p.m.
