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VIDEO: Car drives through toll booth, crashes into ocean striking beachgoer in Daytona
The toll booth was completely destroyed after the car plowed through it. Luckily, however, no one was working in it at the time
July 27, 2022 5:56am
Updated: July 27, 2022 11:40am
A car drove through a toll booth and onto Daytona beach, striking a 5-year-old beachgoer, before crashing into the ocean on Sunday, according to Volusia County Beach Safety.
At around 5 p.m. on Sunday, a driver apparently suffered from a medical episode as he was approaching a toll booth from Daytona International Speedway.
The toll booth was completely destroyed after the car plowed through it. Luckily, however, no one was working in it at the time.
A woman in the car tried to remove the driver’s foot from the accelerator but was unable to. The only thing she could do was steer through traffic.
The car veered off the road, onto the beach full of people and struck a 5-year-old before crashing into the ocean.
“(The car) was going like 40 miles per hour, and it obliterated the toll booth and came barreling all the way through. People were dodging left and right to get out of the way,” Nicole Mathis said.
Beach goers immediately hurried to help the passengers in the car. They worked to push the car out of the waves and get the family out of the car.
“The car was just back and forth, and it kept hitting us. It was dangerous. And Nicole was saying roll down the window, you have to come out the window. It was awful,” Shannon Lofland said.
A video shared with Fox 35 shows the crowd of people around the vehicle trying to help out.
The five-year-old was taken to a hospital in Daytona Beach and then airlifted to Arnold Palmer Hospital in Orlando. He suffered from a chest would and is still recovering in the hospital. The other victims were all passengers in the vehicle. They were transported to the hospital to be checked.
“It may have been a seizure. We just don’t know at this time. When he came over the bridge, he went through the beach access ramp, hitting the gate and the toll booth,” said Volusia County Beach Safety Ocean Rescue Deputy Chief Tamra Malphurs.
“We’re very fortunate that no one else was injured. That is a very busy beach access ramp. It’s usually in that time of day we usually have a lot of people in that area,” Malphurs said.
The driver was cited for careless driving.
