Driver killed in crash involving Publix truck in Miami Gardens
MIAMI - One person died overnight in a Miami Gardens crash involving a Publix truck.
It happened at NW 183 Street and NW Miami Court, next to a Publix distribution center.
The cameras at Avi Vaknin's business captured the crash. He said his phone lit up with notifications.
"I woke up, I got a lot of text messages from the police, from news reporters, my employees, they told me to look at the cameras around 3 a.m. I started going on the playback and what I saw was devastating," he said.
The video shows the Publix tractor-trailer leaving the distribution center and attempting to make a left turn onto Miami Gardens Drive. That's when a Ford F-250 truck, driving eastbound, slammed into it.
According to Miami Gardens police, the pick-up truck driver was traveling at a high rate of speed, failed to stop and hit the trailer. The force of the crash lodged the pickup truck under the tractor-trailer.
"I wanted to find out if the driver is alive, what's his condition, if he's okay. I looked through other angles of other cameras that I have just to see if he's, you know, if he was trapped in the vehicle. I saw the police came right away. About 30 seconds we saw a bunch of vehicles and they tried to get him out. I think about two minutes after, the fire marshal came and they started, you know, cutting the vehicle," said Vaknin.
Miami Gardens police said the driver did not survive.
It took several tow trucks and several attempts to lift the tractor-trailer high enough to dislodge the pick-up truck from underneath.
The driver of the Publix truck was not injured.
