GREEN COVE SPRINGS, Fla. — It’s a highway curve one family is calling deadly -- after another person died in a three-vehicle crash on State Road 16 near Susan Drive.
First Coast News drone footage Monday of car parts flung across the Green Cove Springs curve up to the Shands Bridge -- familiar scene, which brought a rush of emotions back to Victoria Brandt's grandmother who adopted her and went by mom.
“I was about ready to jump over the bridge, because I just knew she was dead," mother Sherolyn Brandt described the day 13 years ago in tears.
In 2007, 8-year-old Victoria died in a four-vehicle crash in the same spot -- along with two other young children who were riding in one of the vehicles going the other way.
"Here we go again... it was like it was yesterday," Victoria's father Michael Brandt said.
The “Drive Safely” sign with Victoria's name on it -- it's the message the Brandt family wants to make sure drivers see as they hit this part of highway.
Although, now more than ever, they want more to be done to make this curve safer.
“How many more lives have to be lost? Someone please put some barriers up. Somebody please take note. Somebody please put some barriers up," Sherolyn said.
“I think there should be reflectors of some type to alert the drivers to slow down, some speed bumps to slow people around the corner," Michael explained the widening of the highway would be the most ideal change.
Between 2017-2019 alone there were 14 crashes in the area, according to statistics from the Florida Highway Patrol.
The First Coast Expressway project will be expanding the Shands Bridge. FDOT told First Coast News construction on it is expected to start sometime next year.
The expressway project does not include any changes to State Road 16.
