STUART — Martin County Sheriff John Budensiek recently launched an initiative to garner support from elected officials, community members and the Florida Department of Transportation in order to expedite the widening of State Route 710, which he’s termed a “death funnel” due to nearly three dozen fatalities over the past decade on that roadway.
Sheriff Budensiek first began his campaign with local state representatives before taking it to the Martin County Commission March 24 and two days later to the Indiantown Village Council.
He’s determined to bring awareness to those who may not have driven that highway or experienced the fright of seeing an 18-wheeler or dump truck veering across the center line toward oncoming traffic.
“We started the year with three fatality crashes yet again on 710,” he told the latter board on March 26. “In one week we lost three people, and this has been recurring. I took it upon myself to reach out to State Rep. [John] Snyder and members of the state to try to hasten this project. As part of that, Rep. Snyder asked me to do a PowerPoint. I presented it to Rep. Snyder, the secretary of FDOT and then our local FDOT liaison Steven Braun. After doing the presentation, I thought it prudent just to come and share what I talked about.”
Sheriff Budensiek had a contingent of his top brass with him that evening, including Lieutenant David Roscoe, whom he credited with helping his department create the presentation including an extremely impactful video titled The Most Dangerous Road in Martin County. The sheriff warned Council members and the public in attendance that they might find the images of accident scenes disturbing. The first was of a van packed with wedding participants that struck a pickup truck, leaving the latter engulfed in flames on Feb. 15, 2025.
“The title is not just hype – it is an extremely dangerous 23-mile stretch,” he said as he depicted that image and referred to that section proposed for widening. “This crash happened with a group of individuals leaving one of our wedding venues on Fox Brown Road. I was out here that night doing traffic enforcement. We had just chased a drunk driver – not related to this – the wrong way down 710. We were taking him to jail and then this crash happened. This news clip highlights the essence of the problem – the width of the road – there’s nowhere to go.”
Sheriff Budensiek described almost all the fatalities occurring on the Martin County portion of the 33.7-mile stretch between Indiantown and Okeechobee. Since 2015, more than 1,250 motor vehicle crashes have occurred there.
“You’re going to see a recurring theme here of larger trucks striking smaller cars,” he explained as he clicked through photos and launched the video taken from the deputies’ body-worn cameras.
“In the past 10 years, within Martin and Okeechobee, we’ve experienced 31 fatal crashes with 39 people dying,” he explained. “On average, one person has been killed on this section of roadway every three months. This crash happened this year. That young man died almost immediately after they get him removed from the car. We had a car crash similar to that this year [on fire] where deputies couldn’t get them out, and our deputies were traumatized.”
The sheriff ticked off the other deaths, with the majority being young men in their early 20s and including a four-month-old baby. He did give FDOT credit for recently creating turn lanes at the highway entrance to Tommy Clements Road just northwest of Indiantown, the site of several of those fatalities. That and other improvements were approved by the state over the past few years through the Martin County Metropolitan Planning Organization. The ultimate goal is widening the road to four lanes as it is from Indiantown to West Palm Beach.
“I know it’s a tremendous undertaking, but we have made progress,” Budensiek acknowledged. “Today I talked to FDOT Deputy Secretary Braun, and he wanted me to relay a couple of things they’re working on. At [County Road] 609 and 710, they’re trying to put a stop light and realigning that intersection. They believe they can start doing a 2.4-mile stretch from a little bit north of Fox Brown Road down to 609. They believe they can get that out of the ground in the next two years.”
Councilwoman Karen Onsager was the first to pose a question afterward.
“Why don’t they reduce the speed limit?” she asked.
The sheriff admitted Okeechobee County had tried that on their end with frustrating results.
“Okeechobee reduced the limit, and because cars are going so slow, it’s creating more passing and more crashes for them,” he said. “So, it’s kind of like we can’t win.”
For her part, Vice-Mayor Phyllis Waters-Brown wondered if FDOT was planning on doing all the SR 710 widening in two-mile increments, but Budensiek told her it was planned all at once.
“In 2030, it’s the whole stretch,” he explained. “We’re funded to get this project underway, but 2030’s a long time from now. So, they’re looking for things they can do right now. They’re starting the acquisition of land, but if somebody hics them up legally and says I don’t want to sell my land at fair market value, then it’s a legal process and just takes time. They think that two-and-a-half mile stretch will take place faster.”
Board Member Vernestine Palmer then said she’d seen her former community of Broward County struggle with imminent domain procedures and wondered if Martin County couldn’t somehow get the property owners onboard with selling their rights of way without delay.
“Have you thought about going into the different communities to talk to the residents there?” she asked.
“We’ve been doing that for years,” Sheriff Budensiek answered. “In Clementsville and Springhaven, I know them on a first-name basis. That’s why the turn lane’s at Tommy Clements, and they’re going to put one at Springhaven. Those residents out there have been paying the price.”