WILDWOOD -- For the second time in less than a week, a passenger vehicle crossed over the median on Florida's Turnpike in Lake County and struck a large truck carrying highly volatile cargo, leaving one person dead.
The Sunday morning accident forced authorities to close a major portion of the turnpike, stalling truckers and forcing thousands of northbound travelers to detour around the scene.
Alphonso Bradley Jr., 32, of Citra died at the scene of the 8:15 a.m. accident when the 2002 Chevrolet pickup he was driving crossed from the southbound lanes and struck a northbound tanker truck filled with 9,300 gallons of gasoline, the Florida Highway Patrol said.
Bradley was not wearing a seat belt and was thrown from the pickup, according to the FHP.
The accident happened just south of the Okahumpka Service Plaza, near the Sumter County line.
Damon Wayne Boss,32, of Ocoee, driver of the tanker truck that flipped over after the collision, was taken by ambulance to Leesburg Regional Medical Center in serious condition, the FHP said.
Boss was wearing a seat belt, the highway patrol said.
The accident left just one southbound lane on the turnpike open for most of the day and halted northbound traffic for more than seven hours, according to the FHP.
On Wednesday, Tera Marie Ross, a 22-year-old college student from Broward County, died when the Ford Explorer she was driving crossed the median and hit a truck carrying detonator fuses for the military.
A fire erupted in that collision, setting off one case of 24 detonators, forcing officials to close portions of the turnpike for more than 15 hours.
In Wednesday night's accident, which occurred 20 miles south of Sunday's collision, the truck driver and passenger were not injured, but two passengers in Ross' vehicle -- her 20-year-old brother, Zachary Ross, and Jacksonville (Ala.) State University classmate Kelly Raw, 18, of Oviedo -- were injured.
Both were flown to Orlando Regional Medical Center. Ross was released Thursday and Raw during the weekend.
Including Friday's accident on the Bee Line Expressway in east Orange County -- in which a 73-year-old Orlando woman died after her car plowed across the median and collided head-on with a tractor-trailer -- Sunday's collision was the third fatal accident involving a median crossover on a major Central Florida highway within the week.
Officials said they were fortunate that there was no fire involved in Sunday's collision with the gasoline-laden truck heading from Taft to Wildwood.
Cleanup, however, was still risky and time-consuming.
When Lake County Fire Rescue Battalion Chief Randy Jones arrived at the scene, he immediately called for the Seminole County Fire Rescue hazardous-materials team -- the only agency in the region equipped to handle such situations, said Gary Kaiser, public safety director for Lake County.
"That was the right call," Kaiser said.
"Randy was one of the first on the scene, and he knew right away what was needed."
When Seminole firefighters arrived, they climbed atop the overturned tanker and began drilling holes in the side to pump the gasoline into another tanker.
"There are two main concerns," said Malcolm Trigg, battalion chief for Seminole special operations.
"Sparks, and climbing up so high on that slippery surface."
The firefighters emptied the damaged tanker's cargo into the other tanker, and debris was cleaned up to get the roadway open.
Both southbound lanes and one northbound lane were open by about 2:30 p.m. and the remaining northbound lane opened an hour later, the FHP said.
Sunday's accident was the 24th crossover accident on the turnpike in Lake, Orange and Osceola counties this year, according to the highway patrol.
In Lake County alone, seven of the eight fatal turnpike accidents this year involved drivers crossing the median.
Investigators said they do not know what caused Bradley's truck to cross the median Sunday.
It was raining at the time of the accident, said Sgt. Jorge Delahoz of the FHP, who said he does not know if the weather was to blame.
"We still have witnesses we need to talk to before we can figure out what happened," he said.
Although 109 miles of the turnpike, which runs from Florida City to Wildwood, have guardrails in the median, 200 miles do not -- including most of Central Florida.
Last month, turnpike officials agreed to complete the installation for $40 million, but the work is expected to take five years.
