PANAMA CITY — One man is dead and three others were left in serious condition after an early morning head-on collision, according to Florida Highway Patrol reports.
The crash happened after Jeffrey Dean Mayo, 45, drove onto the sidewalk of 15th Street at about 7 a.m. near Sherman Avenue. Mayo then re-entered the roadway, crossed over into the oncoming traffic lane before he collided head-on with a 2008 Mitsubishi moving van, FHP reported.
Mayo was pronounced dead at the scene. The driver and passengers of the moving van — 47-year-old John Alex Austin, 43-year-old Charles Silvester Taylor and 40-year-old Nakia Briggs — were taken to a local hospital in serious condition.
A vendor at the nearby 15th Street Flea Market, 2223 E 15th St, who’d arrived moments after the crash, said the people in the moving van seemed lucky to be alive.
“The engine was jammed into the front seat, and the steering wheel was on the outside,” said the vendor, who declined to be identified for this story.
Mayo was driving east on 15th Street in a 1999 Ford Ranger pickup truck Monday at about 7 a.m., according to FHP reports. He was approaching Maple Avenue when he ran off the roadway, to the right, onto the sidewalk along the eastbound lane, FHP reported.
Mayo recorrected, re-entering the roadway and crossing over both inside eastbound lanes as well as the center turning lane. The Ford Ranger then careened, head-on with the moving van where both vehicle came to a rest in the westbound lane, FHP said.
Mayo was taken to the county medical examiner’s office for pending alcohol tests.
The driver and passengers of the moving van were transported to Bay Medical Center Sacred Heart for treatment, FHP said.
There was a roadblock westbound from Sherman to Red Wood Avenue until around 10:30 a.m. Monday.