Fatal Crash between Truck and New Smyrna Beach Home

By Orlando Personal Injury Attorney on October 30, 2017

The quiet of Monday morning in New Smyrna Beach was shattered early on Monday morning after a car was driven through a fence and into a home at around 3:30 a.m. Members of the Florida Highway Patrol were quick to arrive at the house after an unidentified individual who either witnessed the event or stumbled upon the aftermath called 9-1-1. The initial report, while lacking much information, discussed the immediately known facts of the case.

Walter Sumner, an Edgewater resident, was driving his 2002 Ford pickup truck in the northbound lane of Glencoe Road, approaching South Taylor Road, when, for reasons that are not currently clear, he lost control of the car. Veering across the road, Sumner attempted to regain control but was ultimately unable to prevent his vehicle from skidding from the asphalt. In his rush over the grass next to the side of the road, the car plowed through a fence demarcating a property line and then across the lawn of a home located at 2299 Glencoe Road.

Sumner’s Ford rushed towards the home at an alarming rate, with Sumner still unable to wrestle control away from the car itself. The car’s trajectory was halted when it came into abrupt contact with the home’s brick facade.

Based on pictorial evidence, it seems as though damage to the house itself was minimal, however the effect that the entire ordeal had on the car and Sumner was catastrophic. The car was totaled in the incident and Sumner was declared dead at the scene. It is not clear whether or not Sumner was alive when the paramedics arrived or if he died immediately after colliding with the home.

The report from the Florida Highway Patrol goes on to say that no one was in the home itself at the time of the accident and no one other than Sumner was injured as a result of the crash. It is not known whether or not Sumner was wearing his seatbelt at the time of the accident. The current investigation will also seek to discover whether or not alcohol or other inebriating substances played any role in the fatal 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.