JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — “Many explosions” – that is the sound Avondale neighbors describe hearing around 2 AM Saturday morning.
That sound turned out to be a car crashing into an electrical pole, knocking out electricity for the entire street, and eventually slamming into a home on St. Johns Avenue.
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Action News Jax Shanila Kabir spoke to the homeowners who said the family was not home during the accident.
Homeowner Emily Marshall said she has seen cars lose control and end up on her grass, but nothing this extreme.
“I was shocked and a little bit disappointed that somebody was being obviously irresponsible and traveling in a very, presumably very fast manner for this to occur.”
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Marshall said speeding and racing in this neighborhood has been out of control. Now, they are calling for traffic-calming measures to make sure a crash like this doesn’t happen again.
She adds there is a lot of foot traffic in the area.
“The signage is obviously insufficient, so we need speed bumps to slow people down. We need to make it harder to get going fast on a straight road,” said Marshall.
Avondale resident, Ari Pinto, said his father lives ten houses down and the noise woke him up. Witnesses told him that two cars were involved.
“They were supposedly intoxicated and racing down St. Johns Avenue passing the shops of Avondale. Somebody saw them and later identified it was one of the cars that was flipped 100 feet away,” said Pinto.
He added that when officers arrived, both drivers were gone.
“This morning the neighbors are still all freaked out. They’re saying they’re lucky that no one really got hurt. I’m sure the driver is probably injured, but we don’t really know where he is. He could be dead or walking among us now,” said Pinto.
Action News Jax reached out to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office for more information on this incident and the drivers involved. We are waiting to hear back.
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