‘Medical incident’ sends driver plunging into Daytona ocean

Four people were injured, including a child, when a man suffering an apparent medical emergency crashed through a toll booth and into the ocean at Daytona Beach Sunday, authorities said.

The crash occurred at 4:52 p.m. at the beach’s International Speedway Boulevard approach and obliterated the empty toll booth, The Daytona Beach News-Journal reported.

The car proceeded into the ocean as beachgoers scrambled out of its path.

“A little before 5 p.m., we had a driver go down the beach ramp at the International Speedway Boulevard and crash into the water,” Tamra Malphurs, deputy chief of Volusia County Beach Safety Ocean Rescue, told CNN. “He hit a toll booth and he entered the water.”

The child, who was in the water when the out-of-control car hit, was in stable condition in the hospital Sunday night, Volusia EMS officials told WKMG-TV.

Breaking News

As it happens

Get updates on the coronavirus pandemic and other news as it happens with our free breaking news email alerts.

“I heard a giant crash,” witness Jake Lofland told WKMG. “I mean, I thought it was either a firework that went off, or I mean something bad just happened.”

That was the sound the car made smashing through the toll booth, WKMG reported.

“It was going like 40 miles per hour, and it obliterated the toll booth and came barreling all the way through,” beachgoer Nicole Mathis told the outlet. “People were dodging left and right to get out of the way.”

Mathis, Lofland and his wife, Shannon Lofland, helped rescue the people in the car after making sure their son was safe.

“The car was just back and forth and it kept hitting us. It was dangerous,” Shannon Lofland told WKMG.

They pulled two girls out of the back and the wife out of the front. The driver was unconscious, they said.

“Apparently, he said I’m going to have a seizure, and they thought he was joking, but then he really was having a seizure,” Mathis told the station.