{"id":153979,"date":"2026-02-13T04:28:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T04:28:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/153979\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T04:28:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T04:28:06","slug":"deadly-crashes-on-state-road-710-spark-urgent-safety-push-but-major-expansion-years-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/153979\/","title":{"rendered":"Deadly crashes on State Road 710 spark urgent safety push but major expansion years away"},"content":{"rendered":"

INDIANTOWN, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 The Martin County Sheriff has flat-out called State Road 710, a \u201cdeath trap<\/a>\u201d after a series of deadly crashes along the rural highway also known as Warfield Boulevard.<\/p>\n

The narrow, two-lane road connects Okeechobee County and Martin County, taking drivers through long stretches with just one lane in each direction and little room for error.<\/p>\n

In the first two weeks of January alone, six people were killed in crashes along the stretch<\/a> in Martin County, according to the sheriff\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty dangerous. I\u2019ve seen a couple cars almost hit me head-on,\u201d one driver said.<\/p>\n

See also: HOV lanes are gone. So why are the signs still up on I-95?<\/a><\/p>\n

Speeding is a major concern. Drivers frequently pass in no-passing zones, weaving in and out of traffic, even with posted “no passing” signs.<\/p>\n

Deputies say they\u2019ve also seen the opposite problem: drivers moving far below the 60-mile-per-hour speed limit<\/a>, sometimes as slow as 25 miles per hour.<\/p>\n

According to the Okeechobee County Sheriff’s Office, those drastic speed differences are triggering risky passing maneuvers and near misses.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey try to pass them and go around, or they\u2019re just driving too slow and too many cars, it just causes too many problems,\u201d said a driver who didn’t want to be identified.<\/p>\n

The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) is planning a major expansion of State Road 710, widening it from two lanes to four to cut down on the number of crashes.<\/p>\n

But construction isn\u2019t expected to begin until mid-2029.<\/p>\n

State Rep. John Snyder (R-Stuart) said he’s keeping the pressure on FDOT to keep the project moving fast but safely.<\/p>\n

“We’re talking about a $320 million major infrastructure overhaul and so we want to get it done right,” he said.<\/p>\n

Rep. Snyder recently met with FDOT’s regional secretary and has been pushing to move that timeline up. However, he says a lot still needs to happen before shovels ever go into the ground.<\/p>\n

“Things are happening, but like any large-scale infrastructure project there is a design phase; there’s a permitting phase; there’s a land acquisition phase, but the journey has begun,” Snyder said.<\/p>\n

While drivers wait for the larger expansion, FDOT plans to implement several safety improvements in the coming months, including adding roadway lighting, rumble strips and another passing lane.<\/p>\n

Nick Giampaolo of Okeechobee says even small changes could make a difference.<\/p>\n

\u201cA little bit of a wider road, some more barriers, some lights, yeah, it\u2019d be nice,\u201d Giampaolo said.<\/p>\n

Those short-term fixes should roll out over the next few months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"INDIANTOWN, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 The Martin County Sheriff has flat-out called State Road 710, a \u201cdeath trap\u201d after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":153980,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172],"class_list":["post-153979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}