Crash near Palm Beach Gardens on southbound turnpike results in one death

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. - A 17-year-old Greenacres girl is dead and her teenage friend from Lake Worth is in the hospital after the pickup truck they were in became disabled on Florida's Turnpike and then was struck from behind by a semi tractor trailer overnight near PGA Boulevard, the Florida Highway Patrol reports.

The two teens had been to a play in Miami last night with a third friend. They drove to Stuart after the play to drop the third friend at home and were attempting to head south on the turnpike when the truck was hit, FHP spokesman Kurt Hardley said this morning.

Carol Sun was in the passenger seat of the Toyota 4Runner when it was hit at about 1:29 a.m. today. She died at the scene. The driver, 17-year-old Patricia Bao-Tran Le, of Lake Worth, was taken to St. Mary's Medical Center in West Palm Beach to be treated for injuries.

Troopers continue to investigate the crash, but early accounts seem to indicate that Bao-Tran Le hit the median wall and guard rail, bringing the pickup to a stop in the right south bound lane about two miles south of Indiantown Road, Hardley said.

Either seconds or minutes later, it's still unclear, the semi tractor trailer crested the hill and slammed into the rear of the pickup, splitting that vehicle in two, he said.

The crash investigation and a small fuel spill prompted authorities to close the turnpike's southbound lanes from Indiantown Road to PGA Boulevard for nearly six hours. It re-opened shortly after 7 a.m.

This is the third serious crash to close that stretch of the turnpike between Indiantown Road and PGA Boulevard for several hours in almost six months. The other two came within a week of one another in March.

On March 23, at 4:47 a.m., a fiery crash sent a Miami Gardens man to the hospital with third-degree burns. He was behind the wheel of a southbound tractor trailer when he failed to slow for a dump truck that was merging onto the highway from the shoulder.

A week later on March 30, at 5:15 a.m., a truck merged from the shoulder into the path of a southbound car triggering a wreck that involved five cars - including two cars in northbound lanes that crashed to avoid flying debris. No one was seriously injured in that crash, but it forced an hours-long shutdown of the turnpike.