UPDATE: July 15, 2:30 p.m.
Fleeing northbound from an attempted traffic stop on State Road A1A in Ponte Vedra Beach on Tuesday morning, a vehicle ran the red light at County Road 210, lost control and crossed the median, hitting two southbound vehicles before flipping over.
The driver, Gregory Desir, 24, of Orange Park, was taken to Baptist Beaches Medical Center with serious injuries. His passenger, Jeffrey Sargeant, 23, of Jacksonville, was taken to Shands Jacksonville Hospital with serious injuries.
The driver of a second car, Loral Reitzer, 33, of Jacksonville Beach, and a 2-year-old child were taken to Beaches Baptist Medical Center with minor injuries. None of the injuries was life-threatening, according to a Florida Highway Patrol report.
Driving south on State Road A1A at 8:15 a.m. on Tuesday, Dan Brown couldn’t understand why his passenger, Blair Marley, started screaming.
It was because she saw a northbound car coming across the median at high speed, headed right at their car.
Brown then heard a sound he thought was a motorcycle, "the breeze hit me" and the left rear corner of his own car was clipped as the errant car sped by, hit the front of a second car and flipped over, landing upside down on the southbound shoulder.
"It was better than espresso to wake you up," Brown said afterwards.
"We feel grateful to be alive," Marley added.
A St. Johns County sheriff’s deputy on the scene explained that the incident began when a deputy spotted an expired Florida license tag on Desir's car and attempted to pull it over. The car fled northbound.
The deputy did not pursue, since it is against sheriff’s office policy to conduct a high-speed chase in a busy area for a traffic violation.
The car ran the red light at SR A1A and County Road 210, lost control, crossed the median, struck two cars and overturned just north of the intersection. According to FHP, charges are pending in the accident.
