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FHP still has no info on truck driver who lost metal on 95 Monday morning

Posted at 7:48 PM, Apr 24, 2018
and last updated 2018-04-24 20:01:41-04

As of Tuesday, Florida Highway Patrol has no update on the investigation into who was driving the truck that dropped metal across I-95 Monday morning, damaging more than 30 cars.

“As far as trying to fix what the issue was and fix everybody having to pay now for somebody else’s negligence, they need to get on top of the game," said Lauren Holy, who was on her way to work Monday morning when she drove into a piece of metal.

"They need to get on top of it and try to figure out that that’s a lot of people and a lot of people losing money on something so senseless, something as simple as strapping something tighter. So they need to get on their job and do what they need to do."

An FHP spokesperson was unavailable Tuesday for an interview, but was able to schedule an interview for Wednesday morning.

Holy is looking for answers from FHP as to who dropped the metal on the road because she's facing big bills from the mechanic.

After Holy ran over a piece of metal, she didn't end up with any blown tires and was able to finish driving to work. But there she realized her car had suffered some damage.

"As soon as I got to work the car was smoking and I had a quarter-sized hole in my oil pan," she said.

She had to get her car towed to a mechanic, who then found even more damage to the undercarriage of her car. She just paid $877 to fix several parts of her car, but she still has to get an A/C line and her bumper repaired.

"I’m probably looking at close to 1,200 or 1,300 dollars total," she said.

She hopes FHP finds the truck driver responsible for the damage so she can get reimbursed.

"You don’t have any kind of information. That nobody saw anything," Holy said. "Any other time I see plenty of troopers on there and for them not to see anything is just beyond me.”

She's also disappointed FDOT highway traffic cameras didn't capture the truck losing pieces of metal.

"That bothers me considering they have cameras on there, various cameras," she said. "Somebody should’ve seen something.”

An FDOT spokesperson said employees monitor the cameras 24/7, however, they're flipping through multiple cameras at one time and they rarely see an incident as it's happening.

PBSO provided 35 minutes of 911 calls to WPTV about in reference to metal in the road.

911 callers expressed concern for their safety as they were pulled over onto the side of a dark strip of highway while watching other cars continue to hit a piece of metal.

One caller said she saw a tractor trailer pulled over at exit 69, where a guy was pulling metal pieces back onto a truck.

Click here to listen: