Huge Fireball Accompanies Weather-Related Florida Accident that Kills Two

We always meant to make the short trip (approximately 45 minutes) to Cape Canaveral, so, today, we signed up to "Have Lunch with an Astronaut," and spent the day on the grounds of Cape Canaveral, approximately 45 minutes away on Merritt Island.

We had lunch at 12:15 p.m. with former astronaut John Fabian, who addressed our group of approximately 50 tourists (more on this later). Most of our table was from New Zealand, with the exception of a father and son from Ohio.

Following the buffet lunch, we took a 1 hour 45 minute guided bus tour of the complex and also followed Astronaut Fabian's advice and experienced the simulated blast-off launch experience, which this veteran of 2 space flights (Challenger in '83 and Discovery in '85) said was about as close as you can get to "the real thing."

Waiting in line to experience the simulations and walking through the exhibits kept us busy until approximately 5 p.m.

About 4 p.m. rain began pouring down, just as we left the simulation of a launch, which goes with the ticket to the grounds, free of charge. There are two IMAX screens on the grounds. One was showing "Tron 3D/Legacy." I wanted to see the special effects of the film on the big screen, just in case any of them are Oscar-nominated, even though I had not heard particularly good things about the film. My husband was not as enthused. One of his eyes was lasered for close-up vision and one eye was lasered for far-away vision and, therefore, 3D doesn't work as well for him as he has "mono-vision."

"Come on, Honey," I coaxed. " It's pouring down rain! If we just go to the movie, maybe it will stop while we're in there and we won't get soaked on our way to the car in the parking lot." (The parking, as with all tourist situations in Florida, was quite a distance from the main gate.)

He finally reluctantly agreed to accompany me to see "Tron 3D/Legacy.". This meant killing some time in the gift shop and wandering through a few other exhibits until the show began at 5:30 p.m., but we eventually ended up in the IMAX theater watching a computer generated young Jeff Bridges act opposite today's older veteran actor Jeff Bridges.

When the movie let out, the rain had (finally) stopped. The park was closed. We began driving back to New Smyrna Beach from Merritt Island, which is where the Kennedy Space Center and launch area are located (address is Titusville, FL).There aren't a lot of ways to get to Merritt Island and at least 6,500 people work on the shuttle project, alone, we were told during our tour of the island, which is a game preserve, as well, with wild pigs, alligators, bald eagles and over 350 species of birds, alone.

As we neared SR (State Road) 528 and SR3, our GPS told us to take that exit, but we noticed at least 20 vehicles, many with lights flashing, on the exit, with the legend, "Exit Closed." My husband commented, "Wow! They really take their road work seriously here in Florida. Here it is 7:30 p.m. on a Friday night, and look at all the highway workers on that closed exit!"

We speculated about what the construction might be. We had also noticed a crushed car in a ditch to our left that looked as though a giant hand had simply crushed it like a tin can. My husband feared that the driver of that vehicle might have been badly injured.

We continued on our journey back to our condo and GPS lady "recalculated" and took us there via a different exit.

It was only after we reached New Smyrna Beach and saw the late night news that we learned that, while we were inside the IMAX waching the movie, over 100 accidents had occurred in the pouring rain in a 2-hour span. (We Midwesterners are constantly amazed at the driving in the balmier Southland).

Most importantly, we learned what had really happened at SR528 and SR3, when a tanker truck carrying 2,000 gallons of fuel was clipped by a pick-up truck driven by a young woman (identification not yet announced) at approximately 4 p.m. Both vehicles were driving the same way in the same lane. It is speculated that the young female driver of the pick-up truck clipped the back of the tanker truck while trying to pass, possibly at a high rate of speed, in the driving rain. Both vehicles went out of control and plunged over the overpass, crashing to the highway below, where a huge fireball was seen for miles away. Two huge explosions occurred.

Two eye-witnesses to the crash, Josh Amuda and Matthew Smith of the Remix Night Club less than 500 feet from the area where the two vehicles plunged off the overpass and landed said, "It's pretty daunting when you see life in jeopardy right in front of your eyes, and you can't do anything about it to help." One of the men tried to rush into the fireball to rescue the driver(s) but was restrained by his friend just as the second explosion occurred. All of those in the area said they "felt' the explosion. The only way to identify the driver of the pick-up truck, who was said to be female, is going to be by using dental records. Neither driver survived.

It took 30 firefighters over an hour to fight the flames and billowing smoke. Significant structural damage was done to the bridge, according to Sergeant Kim Montes of the Merritt Island police department. The eastbound lanes are closed. You can't go over or under SR 528, also known as Beachline Highway. Drivers are being urged to exit at Courtland Parkway, go around the bridge overpass that was seriously damaged by the heat and flames, and get right back on the highway after the slight detour.

It will take at least 25 days to fix the damage to the overpass and traffic---which was heavy at that time of day with people going home from work---was backed up for 4 hours. Things had just calmed down about the time we drove by, at 8:00 p.m., after our movie had ended at 7:30 p.m.

Have you ever been in a situation where you, for example, didn't take a certain flight that then crashed? That's the way we felt after learning what we might have been involved in had we left when we finished our tour and not attended "Tron."

"There, but for the grace of God...."