One rear end Collision Leads to Another in Jacksonville’s Southside

Friday morning, a series of accidents occured on Philips Highway in Jacksonville’s southside near Bayard. First, a rear-end accident occurred after traffic stopped for a school bus. In that accident, a pick-up truck rearended a car causing the pick-up to flip and land on its roof. Both the driver of the pick-up and the car were injured and taken to Shands Jacksonville Medical Center.

After police responded to the scene, a police cruiser was struck from behind by another pick-up truck. A Jacksonville Community Service Officer was injured in that accident.

Secondary auto accidents often happen after an initial accident. This is because traffic tends to slow due to the first accident and because people are distracted looking at the accident scene instead of looking forward.

Accidents with emergency vehicles at the scene of an auto accident are all too common as well. Florida law requires that drivers yeild to emergency vehicles by vacating the lane closest to the vehicle if travelling on a roadway with multiple lanes in each direction. Failure to do so is a fineable traffic offense.