Video shows crash at deadly Volusia County intersection

Family sharing video of crash at same intersection where deputy was killed

VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. – The family of Adam Duke, 18, is sharing dashcam video of his recent crash with hopes of prompting change at the intersection of Tomoka Farms Road and Pioneer Trail. 

Video from Duke's brother's dash camera on Aug. 28 shows a KIA Sedona blow through a stop sign and crash into the Embry-Riddle freshman coming home from his first week at school. Florida Highway Patrol said the driver was ultimately cited. 

"My older son was behind him in his car, they were returning from school at Embry-Riddle and he was just following him," Bill Duke said. "(My son) called me from the accident and said my other son was dead."

However, Bill Duke's son survived. Adam Duke spent two days in a hospital with a severe head injury and a broken rib. But the family is sharing the dash camera video as well as starting a petition with the goal of making the intersection safer. 

"I kept replaying it and thinking, 'Why did this happen?' that's exactly what I thought because it shouldn't of, there is a stop sign on all four corners," said Adam's sister, Devynne Duke.

So far, the petition has garnered more than 12,000 signatures in two days. 

At that same intersection in June, Volusia County Deputy Frank Scofield was hit and killed while riding his bike.

After the crash, Volusia County conducted a traffic study, which recorded 27 crashes from 2014 to 2018 and another 14 crashes in 2019 alone. 

[READ: Traffic study on Tomoka Farms Road and Pioneer Trail intersection]

The study recommended a roundabout as a possible long-term solution. However, county officials said short-term solutions are already taking place. 

"The county's traffic engineering division has been working on implementing some of the short-term recommendations," wrote Joanne Magley, Volusia County spokesperson. 

Some of those short-term solutions include tree trimming, installing LED enhanced stop signs, installing stop signs on the left side of the southbound and eastbound approach and installing reflective red strips on stop sign posts.

However, when it comes to any possible long-term solutions, Magley said it would need to be discussed with the county council and a date to set the discussion has yet to be set. 

"If you aren't thinking of long-term and long-term benefit for other people then what are you doing?" Devynne Duke said. "When I think the term short-term there is a reason why it's short-term. It's just like you are trying to make us happy temporarily."


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