J.D. Gallop

FLORIDA TODAY

Florida Highway Patrol troopers shut down on-ramps Thursday leading to Interstate 95 from West Melbourne and Palm Bay as rescue crews treated multiple patients following a crash involving a semitrailer and a box truck.

One man, identified as 59-year-old William Lisle of Ormond Beach, was killed and another was possibly impaled by a metal rod in the cab of one of the vehicles. Southbound lanes of the interstate reopened at 10:35 a.m. while the northbound lanes were reopened just after 8 p.m.

The crash happened at 9:15 a.m. just north of the Palm Bay Road exit. Two semitrailers were involved, including one truck – a 1996 semi driven by 48-year-old Douglas Platt of Melbourne – that was hauling heavy equipment.

"This crash occurred when a semi-truck hauling an excavator (road construction equipment), on a trailer, was traveling southbound on I-95, had a tire tread separation," Kim Montes, spokeswoman with the Florida Highway Patrol, said in an emailed statement. "The truck driver lost control of the semi and traveled through the guardrail."

An excavator came off the trailer and rolled into the northbound lanes, hitting a semitrailer in the process, Montes said. Debris scattered, striking at least one other car's windshield.

Authorities initially said there were six patients but just one person, Platt, was taken to Holmes Regional Medical Center in Melbourne. There was also a diesel spill, although it was not immediately known how much of the fuel was involved.

One injured in Palm Bay crash on Minton

Video stills taken from state surveillance cameras in the area showed mangled wreckage and skid marks leading from one lane and into another.

Palm Bay Fire Rescue along with Brevard County Fire Rescue crews responded within minutes. Palm Bay police have also blocked off traffic at the northbound on ramp at Palm Bay Road.