LAKELAND -- A car being pursued by a state trooper at more than 100 miles per hour slammed through a construction zone, leading to a crash that injured five and shut down Interstate 4 for several hours early Friday morning.
The Florida Highway Patrol says a trooper spotted a blue Toyota Camry traveling 102 mph near mile marker 35 on I-4 westbound, just before midnight. The trooper tried to pull over the car and it sped up to 130 miles per hour. The Camry went into a construction zone near the Polk Parkway where only one lane was open. It collided with two tractor trailers, splitting into several pieces. The two men inside, a 37-year-old man from Tampa and a 30-year-old man from Port Charlotte, were thrown out onto the shoulder, ending up with serious injuries. Some of the pieces landed on an SUV going through the construction area in a traffic lane. The tractor trailer drivers, a 62-year-old Minnesota man and a 48-year-old Washington state man, and the SUV driver, a 43-year-old woman from Lakeland, suffered minor injuries.
Troopers aren't sure which of the men in the Camry was driving. They found $5000 in cash and several pounds of marijuana inside the car.
The crash shut down I-4's westbound lanes until 7:30 a.m. Friday.