Daytona Beach Dump Truck Driver Arrested After Hit-and-Run

By Orlando Personal Injury Attorney on August 4, 2021

According to preliminary accident reports from investigative authorities with the Daytona Beach Police Department, a 46-year-old Orlando resident and habitual traffic offender was apprehended over the weekend after he crashed his company-issued dump truck into multiple vehicles along West International Speedway Boulevard in Volusia County.

It was shortly before 1 p.m. this past Friday afternoon that local officers with the Daytona Beach Police Department were dispatched to the scene of a serious hit-and-run accident involving a dump truck and nine other vehicles near the Daytona International Speedway racing venue. Detectives with the DBPD indicate that 46-year-old Thomas Somersall, an employee of Star Trucking & Construction Services, Inc. based in Mims, was driving the corporate dump truck in the westbound direction of the highway between Fentress Boulevard and Williamson Boulevard when he suddenly decided to start a dangerous collision course with nearby motorists on the roadway. After Somersall crashed into nine separate vehicles, he then sped away in the dump truck.

Witnesses who were in the area when the accident occurred were shocked and horrified by what had just unfolded right in front of their eyes. “There is damage everywhere – the car, the semi truck, he just flew through and just hit cars,” one said. “The dump truck, it just kept, it just kept going and it flew through and it was tumbling through vehicle, after vehicle, after vehicle.”

Several Volusia County emergency teams arrived at the large accident site in order to assist the fifteen people who were injured due to the dump truck driver’s negligence. Three of these victims required further medical treatment and they were transported to local hospitals. No additional updates have been given regarding their conditions.

After eluding law enforcement for a few hours, Thomas Somersall was finally arrested a few miles outside the city on Tomoka Farms Road by Port Orange. He was charged with multiple counts of hit-and-run and bonded out of jail Saturday morning. Police have said that Somersall had been legally classified as a “habitual traffic offender” and was driving on a revoked license at the time of the accident. Standard field sobriety tests were performed by the suspect before he was taken into custody, however, officers do not currently believe that drugs or alcohol played a part in the incident.

James O. Cunningham

Since 1977, personal injury lawyer James Cunningham has provided effective legal advocacy to people who are injured through the negligent actions of another person or entity throughout the Central Florida area. He fights to obtain recoveries for his clients’ physical and emotional pain and suffering and pursues his clients’ personal injury cases with a commitment to excellence and impeccable preparation.