Two men – one from Lady Lake – were seriously injured Sunday afternoon when their car crossed into the southbound lanes of Interstate 75 and collided with a tandem-trailer semi-truck.
The driver of the 2004 Toyota Camry, Joshua Berrio Eastman, 21, of Winter Garden, was transported to UF Shands Hospital in Gainesville with serious injuries. His passenger, 26-year-old Kelsey Hall, of Lady Lake, was taken to Shands Live Oak Regional Medical Center, also with serious injuries.
The driver of the 2015 Peterbilt semi, Anthony Leroy Drake, 62, of McDonough, Ga., wasn’t injured.
According to a Florida Highway Patrol report, Eastman was heading north on I-75 near Mile Marker 433 in Columbia County just after 4 p.m. when his car suddenly veered from the left lane and traveled across the median into the southbound lanes. Seconds later, the front of the Toyota struck the back tires of the semi, causing the trailer tandem to separate and rotate several times before ending up on the left lane of the highway, the report states.
Eastman’s Toyota came to rest in the west grassy shoulder of the interstate facing northwest, while Drake stopped the semi on the west shoulder of the roadway.
The accident is still under investigation and troopers haven’t determined if alcohol was involved.