{"id":91201,"date":"2025-12-21T05:40:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T05:40:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/91201\/"},"modified":"2025-12-21T05:40:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T05:40:14","slug":"st-petersburg-man-dies-after-truck-crashes-through-dead-end-and-into-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/91201\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Petersburg Man Dies After Truck Crashes Through Dead End And Into Water"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Police-Lights-Emergency-LEO-Law.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"455\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Police-Lights-Emergency-LEO-Law.jpeg\" alt=\"Police Lights\" class=\"wp-image-18780\" title=\"St. Petersburg Man Dies After Truck Crashes Through Dead End And Into Water 1\"  \/><\/a>Police Lights (File)<\/p>\n<p>ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2013 A St. Petersburg man lost his life early this morning after his pickup truck drove through a guardrail at the end of a street and submerged in the water.<\/p>\n<p>The crash occurred just after 7:15 a.m. on 62nd Avenue Northeast. According to investigators, 35-year-old David Hawkins, Jr. was driving his white 2012 Ford F250 eastbound.<\/p>\n<p>For reasons police are still trying to determine, Hawkins did not stop where the road ends. The truck smashed through the guardrail, tore across a grassy area, and struck several trees before plunging into the water.<\/p>\n<p>READ: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tampafp.com\/game-over-lakeland-tax-preparer-sentenced-for-60m-gambling-fraud-scheme\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Game Over: Lakeland Tax Preparer Sentenced For $60M \u2018Gambling\u2019 Fraud Scheme<\/a><\/p>\n<p>A passerby spotted the truck and called 911 to report a \u201cvehicle in the water.\u201d Fire Rescue crews responded quickly and located Hawkins inside the cab, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.<\/p>\n<p>Authorities confirmed that his family has been notified.<\/p>\n<p>Crews closed 62nd Avenue Northeast for several hours to recover the vehicle and investigate the scene, but the roadway has since reopened. The investigation is ongoing.<\/p>\n<p>Please make a small\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.paypal.com\/donate\/?hosted_button_id=KWYEB8X3JQ2MY\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">donation to the Tampa Free Press to help sustain independent journalism<\/a>. Your contribution enables us to continue delivering high-quality, local, and national news coverage.<\/p>\n<p>Sign up:\u00a0Subscribe to our free\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/tampafp.com\/newsletter\/\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">newsletter<\/a>\u00a0for a curated selection of top stories delivered straight to your inbox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police Lights (File) ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2013 A St. Petersburg man lost his life early this morning after&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38491,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-91201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91201","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=91201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91201\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}