MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – Two fatal crashes prompted southbound closures on the Florida Turnpike on Saturday night and early Sunday morning in Miami-Dade County. Florida Highway Patrol troopers and Miami-Dade Fire Rescue personnel responded.
At about 2:15 a.m., Sunday, a fatal two-vehicle crash shut down southbound Turnpike traffic at the Eureka Drive exit in Cutler Bay. According to Lt. Alex Camacho, a spokesman for FHP, a passenger died after the crash.
“The driver and passenger of one of the vehicles were transported to Jackson South Hospital, where the passenger later died,” Camacho wrote in a statement.
At about 9:15 p.m., Saturday, a fatal three-vehicle chain-reaction crash stalled southbound Turnpike traffic at Bird Road near the Westwood Lakes and Kendale Lakes neighborhoods, and it closed the on-ramp at Southwest Eighth Street in the University Park-Tamiami area.
Witnesses said they were on their way to Kendall when the traffic congestion extended from the area west of the Florida International University’s main campus on Eighth Street to the area east of HCA Florida Kendall Hospital on Bird Road and lasted for hours.
“The Turnpike was closed throughout the preliminary investigation and traffic was diverted onto SW 8 ST,” Camacho wrote.
A white sports utility vehicle and a gray sedan collided first and stopped on the left southbound lane. According to Camacho, an oncoming pickup truck crashed into the gray sedan — and struck two people who had gotten out of their cars after the first crash.
“As a result of the secondary crash, one of the occupants that was struck died on scene and the other was transported to Kendall Regional Hospital in critical condition,” Camacho wrote referring to the former name of the now HCA Florida Kendall Hospital.
The cause of the crashes was under investigation and authorities had yet to release the identities of the two dead.
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This is a developing story. Local 10 News Assignment Desk Editors Joyce Grace Ortega and Mercedes Cevallos contributed to this report.