A 27-year-old Ocala man traveling southbound on Interstate 75 died on Thursday evening after his pickup truck veered off the roadway, drove through a fence, and crashed into a tree.
At around 6:20 p.m., the pickup truck was traveling on I-75 in the outside lane, near mile marker 355 in Marion County. As the roadway curved to the left, the vehicle proceeded to veer to the right, traveling in a southwesterly direction across the paved shoulder and onto the west grass shoulder, according to the Florida Highway Patrol incident report.
While on the west shoulder, FHP stated that the pickup truck crashed into a barbed wire fence. After the impact, the vehicle drove through the fence and continued heading southwest into the wood line.
Moments later, the pickup truck collided with a tree, and the vehicle caught on fire with the driver trapped inside. The pickup truck soon became fully engulfed in flames, and the driver was pronounced deceased by a Marion County Fire Rescue paramedic at 6:35 p.m, according to the report.
The name of the driver involved in the crash was not released by the Florida Highway Patrol.