published: Friday, June 12, 2009

Two Lake Placid men die in Putnam Co. head-on crash

BY LARRY SULLIVAN

Palatka Daily News

SAN MATEO -- A head-on crash near San Mateo early Monday has claimed a second life.

A passenger in the car, Felipe Vazquez, 31, of Lake Placid, died at a Gainesville hospital several hours after he was evacuated by helicopter, the Florida Highway Patrol said Wednesday.

The car in which Vazquez was riding collided head-on with a pickup driven by a Palatka woman, who authorities said suffered serious injuries. The collision occurred about 6:45 a.m. Monday on State Road 100, about three miles east of the highways intersection with U.S. 17 in San Mateo. That stretch of road was closed for about three hours as troopers investigated the wreck and crews removed debris.

The driver of the automobile, identified by the FHP as 26-year-old Noe Cervantes of Lake Placid, died at the crash site.

Troopers said Susan Basse, 50, of Palatka, was driving east at the time of the wreck. She was taken to a Jacksonville hospital in serious condition, the patrol said. Troopers are still investigating why the vehicles collided.

"Right now we don't really know what caused them to go across the center line," Trooper Kelvin Vega said Monday.

The car and truck came to rest in the middle of the two-lane highway. Emergency workers used high-powered equipment to peel the car apart and remove its roof to pull Cervantes and Vazquez from the mangled wreckage. Parts of the 11-year-old car were scattered across the highway, mixed with music CDs and other items, including a pair of work boots.

Basse's truck, a dark-colored Explorer, buckled in the crash. Although seriously injured, Basse was able to use a cell phone and call 911 for help after the crash.

No skid marks were visible. Investigators found no sign that either the car or the pickup had overcorrected after driving off the highways shoulder, which Vega said was a common cause of wrecks on two-lane roads. Weather was not a factor, Vega said.