A 40-year-old Englewood man died Monday morning after his motorcycle collided with a turning pickup truck and was then struck by a following car near Jacaranda Boulevard and Center Road. The crash happened around 7:40 a.m. as the motorcyclist rode north on Jacaranda Boulevard, according to Florida Highway Patrol.
Troopers said the man was riding a 2021 Honda motorcycle and had been weaving in and out of traffic before the collision, as reported by WINK News. An 87-year-old Venice man driving a 2025 GMC Sierra was attempting to turn left from a private driveway across the northbound lanes to head south when the motorcycle, which had just passed a 2018 Ford driven by a 29-year-old North Port man, struck the truck. The Ford then hit the motorcycle after that initial collision, per the Florida Highway Patrol account relayed by WINK News.
The Herald-Tribune reported the crash occurred on Jacaranda Boulevard near Center Road in Sarasota County, while MySuncoast described the same crash as happening in Venice, attributing that account to the Florida Highway Patrol as well. Troopers pronounced the motorcyclist dead at the scene, and the Herald-Tribune reported that FHP did not identify him in its release.
Injuries and Investigation Status
The Venice man driving the GMC suffered minor injuries, while the North Port driver in the Ford was not hurt, according to the Herald-Tribune's report. The crash remains under investigation by the Florida Highway Patrol, and no findings on fault, citations or charges have been released.
The fatality adds to a string of deadly motorcycle crashes reported in the Sarasota area this year. In September, a 51-year-old Venice rider was killed near the Sarasota intersection of Gulfstream Avenue and Bayfront Drive after his motorcycle struck a vehicle exiting a traffic circle, then hit a pole and a second motorcycle, according to Your Observer. That same report noted a 21-year-old Sarasota rider had died days earlier in a crash at Clark Road and McIntosh Road, making it the second fatal motorcycle crash in less than a week in the area at the time.
Florida's Ongoing Motorcycle Safety Crisis
Statewide, motorcycle fatalities have remained stubbornly high. Florida recorded 9,420 motorcycle crashes in 2024, resulting in 578 deaths and 8,106 injuries, according to data reported by The News-Press. That followed 621 fatalities in 2023 and 631 in 2022, and the outlet noted Florida ranked first in the nation for motorcycle deaths for a third consecutive year.
Preliminary state figures cited by the same report showed 32 motorcycle-crash deaths and 562 injuries in Florida as of early February 2025. The News-Press also pointed to State Road 82 and Daniels Parkway in Fort Myers as a particularly dangerous stretch, linking it to 105 motorcycle fatalities in 2022.
