A driver died Monday evening in a crash on Haines Street near the Mathews Bridge, one of Jacksonville's busiest and most crash-prone corridors, as Florida Highway Patrol troopers work to determine what happened. The wreck was reported at the intersection of Haines Street and the Mathews Expressway, just west of the bridge span itself.
According to Action News Jax, Florida Highway Patrol reported that no roadblock was required at the scene despite the fatality. The outlet said it would update the story as more information becomes available, and the article was authored by Malina Cureton, a content creator and coordinator for the station. As of now, the identity of the victim, the number of vehicles involved, and whether speed or impairment played a role remain unknown.
Troopers responding Monday evening pinpointed the crash location as Haines Street at the Mathews Expressway, just west of the Mathews Bridge, according to News4JAX. That stretch of roadway sits at a complex convergence point where State Road 115, the Arlington Expressway, and the Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway — formerly known as the Haines Street Expressway — all meet, per Wikipedia. Under Florida Statute § 316.066, investigators must submit a formal Long Form crash report to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles within 10 days of any crash involving death, injury, or vehicle incapacitation, meaning official findings on cause could still be days away.
A Bridge With a Troubled Past
Monday's fatality adds to a long list of severe crashes tied to the Mathews Bridge and its surrounding ramps. The bridge, which opened in 1953, has a documented history of high-severity wrecks that led to a $13 million overhaul completed in 2007, replacing its open steel grid deck with solid concrete after multiple fatal accidents and public outcry over slippery driving conditions, News4JAX has reported. The span was also built without emergency shoulders, a design flaw that makes clearing accidents on or near the bridge especially difficult.
The area has seen other deadly incidents in recent years. In May 2021, a 69-year-old Orange Park man died after his van struck a tree on the Hart Bridge ramp to Haines Street, the same general connector network involved in Monday's crash. In December 2024, a 27-year-old woman vanished following a crash on the Mathews Bridge, triggering a weeklong, multi-agency search that ended when Jacksonville Sheriff's Office dive teams recovered her body from the St. Johns River, according to First Coast News.
Speeding Crackdown and a Citywide Safety Push
Hoodline has chronicled a string of dangerous driving incidents on this same corridor. In August, a driver was clocked at 120 mph on the Mathews Bridge, and a Jacksonville teen was separately caught hitting 100 mph in a 45 mph zone on Beach Boulevard with two passengers in the car. A motorcyclist, 18, died in a high-speed collision on the bridge in June 2025, and a February 2026 wreck near the same span brought the Arlington Expressway to a standstill.
Those incidents come as Florida Statute § 316.1922, effective July 1, 2025, established criminal penalties for excessive speeding — defining driving 50 mph or more over the posted limit, or exceeding 100 mph dangerously, as a criminal misdemeanor punishable by up to 30 days in jail. Local agencies have stepped up enforcement along the Arlington Expressway and Mathews Bridge corridors under that law.
The crash also lands squarely within the scope of Jacksonville's Vision Zero Action Plan, officially launched in July 2025 with a municipal goal of eliminating all traffic fatalities and cutting serious roadway injuries in half by 2035. The plan was built using six years of Duval County crash data showing 921 traffic deaths and 2,770 serious injuries over that span. Duval County recorded 108 traffic fatalities through late July 2026 alone, following 169 deaths in 2025 and an estimated 145 in 2024, according to crash data compiled by ThatCarHitMe.com.
Ongoing Construction Adds to the Mix
The Florida Department of Transportation has also been working near the crash site since early 2024, running a $7.9 million project to install Intelligent Transportation System conduit bores along Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway and State Road 115 near Haines Street, a project scheduled for completion through 2027, News4JAX has reported. FDOT routinely manages temporary lane closures and detours in the area while that work continues.
For now, the cause of Monday's fatal crash remains under investigation, and Florida Highway Patrol has not released the victim's identity or details on how many vehicles were involved. Hoodline will update this story as Action News Jax and other outlets report further developments.
