WEST PALM BEACH — A 72-year-old man died Wednesday morning, Oct. 2, when his vehicle veered off a roadway and struck a tree near Palm Beach International Airport , the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office said.
Investigators identified the man as John Simmons of suburban West Palm Beach.
According to a sheriff’s office report, the crash happened shortly after 5:15 a.m. as Simmons was driving west in an outside lane on the 3600 block of Southern Boulevard, just south of the airport, near Lake Lytal Park.
Simmons approached a section of the travel lane that was closed because of maintenance and blocked by two orange traffic cones. He failed to recognize the lane closure in time, striking the cones and then abruptly steering to the left, the sheriff’s report said.
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His 2000 Oldsmobile Alero sedan then rotated clockwise across Southern’s westbound lanes before mounting the center median. The passenger side of the vehicle then struck a tree, the sheriff’s office said. The vehicle came to a stop facing to the southwest.