A Flagler County man died early Thursday after his car rolled off the northbound I-95 exit ramp to Palm Coast Parkway and landed upside down in a retention pond. Crews found the vehicle fully submerged and were unable to revive the driver, who was later pronounced dead. The crash shut down the Exit 289 ramp for several hours, backing up the morning commute around Palm Coast.
Rescue crews searched the water
Palm Coast Acting Fire Chief Bradd Clark said units were dispatched at about 1 a.m. after reports that a driver was operating erratically and had rolled down the embankment. Firefighters and rescue crews dove into the pond looking for a viable patient, but there was no one to save. The body was later claimed by the medical examiner in St. Augustine for an autopsy, according to FlaglerLive.
Vehicle recovery and investigation
John’s Towing owner John Rogers, whose crew responded to the scene, said the Volkswagen GTI struck a tree about 40 feet from the embankment before sinking. Rogers told the paper the tow crew pulled the car from the pond at about 2:10 a.m. and that he had seen the driver “flying” as he took the ramp. Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Troy Harper is serving as the traffic homicide investigator, and the off-ramp remained closed into the morning. FlaglerLive reported that the crash was the county’s 10th road fatality of the year.
This stretch has a history of rollovers
The I-95 exit to Palm Coast Parkway has been the scene of other rollovers into retention ponds, including a 2023 crash in which a driver pulled from an upside-down vehicle later died, according to Palm Coast Observer. A recent verdict tied to an I-95 rollover, a multi-million dollar jury award in May 2026, underscores the risk posed by high-speed crashes on this corridor. For broader crash data and county-level reporting, the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles maintains the state’s Traffic Crash Facts and crash-reporting tools, which compile county totals and trends; see FLHSMV for official records.
Investigation ongoing
Florida Highway Patrol investigators continue to process the scene and collect evidence, and authorities have not released the driver’s name or an official cause of the crash pending the medical examiner’s autopsy. Anyone with information or dashcam video related to the incident is asked to contact the Florida Highway Patrol. Local officials have not announced any immediate changes to the ramp or barriers while the investigation continues.
