a Mercury Grand Marquis lost control on the Main Street Bridge, slid across lanes and collided head-on with a Mercedes<\/a>. The driver of the Grand Marquis died; the Mercedes driver was hospitalized in stable condition with severe injuries, authorities said.<\/p>\nThe JSO crash map shows nine crashes on the Main Street Bridge in the past year, none of them fatal, and another nine crashes just before the bridge, the agency said.<\/p>\n
Greg Driskell, president and CEO of PPP Transportation Safety Innovations in Jacksonville, said the first rainfall after a dry spell can be especially hazardous because oils rise to the surface of newer asphalt, making the roadway slicker than when it is dry.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the beginning of a rainfall, that\u2019s when the oils rise to the top \u2026 and they haven\u2019t had a chance to wash off,\u201d Driskell said. \u201cSlow down and keep your eyes open. Become a defensive driver,\u201d he added, urging motorists to stay alert to the roadway and to other drivers.<\/p>\n
Safety officials offer several simple steps drivers can take during wet weather:<\/p>\n
Turn on headlights when wipers are in use.<\/p>\n
Make sure windshield wipers are in good condition.<\/p>\n
Slow down to reduce the risk of hydroplaning.<\/p>\n
Never drive through flooded roads.<\/p>\n
Be extra cautious on bridges, where wind can worsen conditions.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Two separate crashes in rainy conditions early Wednesday killed two people and left another seriously…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":223899,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117,1872,729],"class_list":["post-223898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-jso","tag-traffic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223898","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=223898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}