A 17-year-old Bunnell boy died at the scene after the SUV he was driving flipped onto its roof on Pine Street Sunday morning, and investigators say none of the four teenagers inside the vehicle were wearing seat belts. The crash happened around 9:40 a.m. just north of Pecan Avenue, blocking the roadway as troopers worked to piece together what went wrong.
According to News4JAX, the teen was heading southbound on Pine Street when he lost control of the SUV and ran onto the east shoulder. Investigators say he then overcorrected to the right, sending the vehicle into a rollover that left it upside down across the road. A 16-year-old male passenger, also from Bunnell, suffered minor injuries in the crash, while a 19-year-old woman and a 21-year-old woman, both from Palm Coast, walked away uninjured.
The Florida Highway Patrol's Traffic Homicide Investigation Unit is handling the case, the outlet's report notes. Troopers have confirmed that none of the four occupants — the driver included — were buckled in at the time of the crash, a detail that looms large over any rollover investigation given how such wrecks typically unfold.
What Florida Law Requires of Teen Drivers and Their Passengers
Under Section 316.614 of the Florida Statutes, known as the Florida Safety Belt Law, every passenger under 18 is required to buckle up in any seat of the vehicle, and the driver can be cited and fined a base amount of $30 plus court costs if a minor passenger isn't belted, according to Online Sunshine. Seat belts matter most in exactly this kind of crash: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration research cited by Injury Facts shows that lap and shoulder belts cut the risk of fatal injury to front-seat SUV and light-truck occupants by 60 percent, largely by preventing full or partial ejection during rollovers.
The disparity shows up nationally in stark numbers. NHTSA crash data reported by The Crash Report found that unbelted occupants made up 49.2 percent of all passenger vehicle fatalities in 2023, despite accounting for less than 9 percent of everyone riding in a vehicle.
Teen Drivers Face Steeper Odds Behind the Wheel
The crash also fits a pattern researchers have tracked for years. Drivers aged 16 to 19 have a fatal crash rate per mile driven nearly three times higher than drivers 20 and older, according to 2024 data from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Florida's own numbers tell a similar story: drivers aged 15 to 19 make up roughly 5 percent of the state's licensed drivers but are involved in about 11 percent of all traffic crashes, per the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.
The Bunnell SUV was carrying three passengers alongside its 17-year-old driver — a configuration that research flags as especially risky. NHTSA research compiled by the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles indicates that teen drivers traveling with multiple teenage passengers are three times more likely to engage in risky driving behavior than when driving alone. The crash also highlights the risks of teen driving.
A Recent Fatal Crash Near Bunnell
Sunday's wreck follows another fatal crash near Bunnell. Just two weeks ago, Hoodline reported that another fatal crash shut down State Road 100 near West Black Point Road, also under investigation by FHP's Traffic Homicide Investigation Unit.
Traffic safety remains a concern in Flagler County, underscored by Sunday's rollover.
Whether speed or impairment contributed to Sunday's rollover, and whether troopers will issue citations to any of the surviving occupants, remain open questions as the Traffic Homicide Investigation Unit continues its work. The identity of the 17-year-old driver had not been officially released as of the latest report.
