{"id":249835,"date":"2026-04-28T16:40:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T16:40:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/249835\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T16:40:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T16:40:07","slug":"81-year-old-port-st-lucie-man-killed-after-dodge-journey-slams-into-back-of-semi-on-i-95-in-melbourne-wife-critically-injured-second-crash-compounds-traffic-chaos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/249835\/","title":{"rendered":"81-Year-Old Port St. Lucie Man Killed After Dodge Journey Slams Into Back of Semi on I-95 in Melbourne; Wife Critically Injured, Second Crash Compounds Traffic Chaos"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8211; Advertisement &#8211;<a href=\" https:\/\/mlgroofing.com\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Mlg-Roofing.png\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>MELBOURNE, FL \u2014 An 81-year-old Port St. Lucie man was killed and his 75-year-old wife was critically injured early Tuesday morning after their SUV crashed into the rear of a stopped semi tractor-trailer on Interstate 95 in Melbourne, wedging the vehicle beneath the flatbed and forcing first responders to cut away the roof to extricate the passenger.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Advertisement &#8211;<a href=\"https:\/\/ashleyflhomeloans.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Blue-Modern-Banking-Loan-Facebook-Ad-1.png\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The crash occurred at approximately 6:00 a.m. on April 28, 2026, on I-95 northbound at mile marker 191 (Wickham Road), according to the Florida Highway Patrol.<\/p>\n<p>Investigators say a 2017 Dodge Journey was traveling northbound in the inside lane approaching the Wickham Road exit when the driver failed to stop for traffic backed up ahead. A 2015 Mack semi tractor-trailer, driven by a 39-year-old Palm Bay man, was stopped in the northbound lane due to traffic congestion when the front of the Dodge struck the rear of the trailer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#8211; Advertisement &#8211; MELBOURNE, FL \u2014 An 81-year-old Port St. Lucie man was killed and his 75-year-old wife&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":249836,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172],"class_list":["post-249835","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\/249835","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=249835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249835\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}