BAY LAKE, Fla. — A Florida Highway Patrol trooper was flown to a hospital with serious injuries after a pickup slammed into his parked patrol car inside a work zone on State Road 429 in Bay Lake, Fla., on Tuesday night, Oct. 27, the patrol said.
The crash was logged at 9:12 p.m. on the Orange County stretch of the toll road, close to mile marker 6, with traffic heading south. The trooper was sitting in his marked car with its emergency lights on, helping run a lane closure ahead of road construction, when a southbound 2026 Toyota Tundra in the outside lane failed to move over and hit the back of the cruiser.
A helicopter took the trooper to HCA Osceola Regional Medical Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition. The pickup driver, a 53-year-old Davenport man, went to Celebration Hospital. Neither man has been named. Troopers are still working the case, and the patrol said it expects to file charges.
Dave Kerner, executive director of the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, used the crash to press drivers to give roadside crews room, saying that simple step makes the roads safer for everyone.
State law requires drivers to shift a lane away from stopped emergency, service, utility and disabled vehicles, or to slow to 20 mph under the posted limit when changing lanes is not safe. Since Jan. 1, 2025, that rule also covers any car on the shoulder with hazard lights, flares or emergency signs. Florida recorded 215 move-over crashes in 2025, and officers wrote more than 17,300 citations for the violation.
Section: More Orlando FL crime news
Filed under: Orlando FL Traffic News
