- May 7, 2024
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This story was updated on Jan. 17.
Three Flagler Palm Coast High School girls basketball players were injured in a crash involving two vehicles at the intersection of Belle Terre Parkway and Pine Grove Drive on the afternoon of Friday, Jan. 13.
The crash was the the 24th to be reported at this intersection since 2020, including a fatality in March 2022, according to the Flagler County Sheriff's Office. Eleven of those crashes resulted in injuries.
One of the FPC players was airlifted to Wolfson Children's Hospital in Jacksonville with a broken femur and a broken pelvis, FPC girls basketball coach Anthony Wagner said. The driver was taken by ambulance to Halifax Health Medical Center in Daytona Beach with a gash on her head. The wound was closed with three or four staples, Wagner said.
The third player was taken to AdventHealth Palm Coast. She was released Friday night, according to a Saturday Facebook post by FPC Girls Basketball. The player at Wolfson had “successful surgery (Saturday) morning, placing a metal rod and 4 screws in her femur,” the post said. She underwent surgery to her pelvis on Monday and was recovering, Wagner said.
The three players left the high school at the end of the school day to retrieve one of the player's basketball shoes, Wagner said. They were due back at the school at 3:45 p.m. to prepare for a game Friday night at Matanzas High School.
Both the JV and varsity games were canceled. FPC's home game against New Smyrna Beach on Monday, Jan. 15, was also canceled, but Wagner said the players decided to go ahead and play their home game on Tuesday, Jan. 17, against Oviedo Master's Academy. The JV game was canceled. The varsity game was scheduled for 6:30 p.m.
“We kind of left it open to the girls. If they felt they could play we'd support them. ... They decided to give it a shot.”
— ANTHONY WAGNER, on FPC playing its game on Jan. 17.
“We kind of left it open to the girls,” Wagner said. “If they felt they could play, we'd support them; if they just wanted to be together as a team, we'd support that too. They decided to give it a shot.”
He said Matanzas and FPC were looking into rescheduling the Jan. 13 game.
According to Wagner, the players were returning to school but were making a stop at one of the player's homes on Pine Grove Drive. When they turned left from a southbound lane on Belle Terre, the car was T-boned by a car heading north.
A spokesman for the Flagler County Sheriff's Office said two juveniles were transported to hospitals; one was airlifted to Wolfson. Northbound traffic was diverted after the crash.
The player who was airlifted to Wolfson was in the front passenger seat and took the brunt of the impact and had to be extracted from the vehicle, Wagner said.
When Wagner informed the rest of the team, the players were visibly upset, he said.
“When you spend as much time together as any team does, you become family,” he said.
Wagner said Matanzas players reached out to the FPC team when they were informed of the situation.
“This is one of those times where we're all Flagler County,” he said.
Staff writer Sierra Williams contributed to this story
