fiery chain-reaction crash Sunday afternoon\u00a0<\/a>on Atlantic Boulevard that left three people dead.<\/p>\nAccording to the Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office, the crash happened on Atlantic Boulevard, over Little Pottsburg Creek, when an Infiniti driven by a teen crossed over the center median and slammed into oncoming traffic.<\/p>\n
Investigators say two SUVs and a car were heading east when the westbound Infiniti entered their lanes, triggering a violent four-vehicle crash. The impact was so severe that vehicles caught fire.<\/p>\n
Neighbor Demita McEwen witnessed the aftermath.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe cars were burned completely unrecognizable, the trees, people lying out in the street, multiple ambulances and firetrucks. It was horrific. It was the worst I have ever seen,\u201d said McEwen.<\/p>\n
McEwen says she saw flames and smoke from her apartment complex shortly after the crash.<\/p>\n
\u201cI could not get back into my apartment so I had to park behind the condo, and as I looked, it was a humongous explosion. The sky was dark, I mean, the smoke was so big that it actually set the trees on fire,\u201d said McEwen.<\/p>\n
Jacksonville Fire Rescue pronounced all three people inside one of the eastbound SUVs dead at the scene.<\/p>\n
Two men in another SUV were transported to the hospital with life-threatening injuries. The driver of a separate eastbound car \u2014 a woman in her fifties \u2014 was also taken to the hospital and is expected to survive. The teen driver of the Infiniti was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.<\/p>\n
McEwen says her heart aches for the families involved.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel sad for the family that have passed, and I feel sorry for the outcome,\u201d said McEwen.<\/p>\n
She adds that this stretch of Atlantic Boulevard is consistently busy and says safety has long been a concern. McEwen says this is the third crash she has witnessed along Atlantic Boulevard since moving to the area.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I would like to see out here is more police surveillance that will allow these people to stop, to slow down,\u201d said McEwen.<\/p>\n
Investigators have not said why the teen crossed the median. The Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office says the crash remains under investigation, and no charges have been announced at this time.<\/p>\n
According to JSO, 42 people have died in traffic crashes in Duval County so far this year. Two people were killed in separate crashes on Monday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A neighbor says the cars were burned beyond recognition as the Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office continues investigating the deadly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":174354,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-175719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175719","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=175719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175719\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}