Four-vehicle crash in Putnam County kills Palm Coast man

By Observer Staff
| 4:00 a.m. April 11, 2013

Palm Coast Observer
News

A garbage truck turned left in front of a rock hauler on State Road 100, in Putnam County, causing a crash at 6:35 a.m. Wednesday, April 10. A Chevrolet 300 and a Ford F-150 got tangled in the crash, resulting in the death of a Palm Coast resident, Robert Laks. He was 33.

Laks was driving the F-150. As the rock hauler tried to avoid the garbage truck, the rock hauler sideswiped the Chevrolet and then drove Laks in the F-150 into the woods, according to the preliminary report from the Florida Highway Patrol report. The investigation is ongoing.

Neither the garbage truck driver, Willie Lane, 44, of Jacksonville, nor his passenger, John Manning, 52, of Palatka, was injured. The rock hauler, Mark Robbins, 59, of Palatka, sustained minor injuries, as did James Chapman, 57, of Palatka, who was driving the Chevrolet.