PANAMA CITY — Two people were pronounced dead, including a Lynn Haven teenager, after separate crashes Sunday night and Monday morning, according to Florida Highway Patrol reports.
The two crashes happened in two separate counties under completely different circumstances but took two young lives on the same state highway.
Monday at about 5:40 a.m., 18-year-old Gabrielle Aviles, of Lynn Haven, was traveling south on State 71 toward the intersection with State 73 in Calhoun County. Brian Nettles, 44, of Panama City, was driving north on the same stretch of highway at the same time, FHP reported.
As of Monday evening, FHP was not sure what caused the crash; but Aviles and Nettles struck each other head-on in the intersection near the center line.
Neither was wearing a seatbelt, FHP said.
The impact caused Aviles, in a 2008 Toyota Prius, to spin momentarily before coming to rest in the northbound lane facing east. Nettles, in a 1991 Mack E300, traveled into a ditch also facing east, FHP reported.
Aviles was later pronounced dead. Nettles was uninjured.
No charges have been filed as FHP’s investigation is ongoing.
The previous night a DeFuniak Springs man was killed at about 9:45 p.m. in a single vehicle accident also along State 71. However, the incident occurred in Jackson County.
Alex C. Brack, 21, was pronounced dead at the scene after being ejected from an overturning vehicle. Neither he nor his passenger Cierra L. Brown, an 18-year-old Blountstown resident, was wearing a seatbelt.
FHP said Brack was driving south on State 71 in a 2008 Ford F-150 when the accident occurred. The truck left the roadway, entered the shoulder, struck a culvert, became airborne and struck a utility pole support wire, FHP reported.
The truck then hit the ground and overturned multiple times, ejecting Brack, the release said. He was pronounced dead on the scene when EMS arrived.
Brown was seriously injured in the wreck and taken to Jackson County Hospital.
The accident is also under investigation, FHP said.