PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – A deadly weekend crash along A1A has reignited calls for safety improvements, as residents and local officials demand action from the Florida Department of Transportation on a stretch of road they say has been a crisis waiting to happen.
A father who lives along Ponte Vedra Boulevard says the road has been a safety crisis for years.
Joshua Rudnick moved to Ponte Vedra in 2023 so his son could attend the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind in St. Augustine. He put up signs north and south of his driveway reading “slow blind child area” and has repeatedly warned the Florida Department of Transportation that someone would get killed on the 55 mph road.
After two people died in a crash near his home on Sunday, Rudnick says the agency still isn’t doing enough.
“This is something I told FDOT was going to happen,” Rudnick said.
Troopers said a 38-year-old driver from Ponte Vedra Beach was headed north on A1A when, for unknown reasons, he crossed the center line into the southbound lane, where his SUV collided head-on with another SUV. Both drivers died, including the 20-year-old driver of the other SUV.
Speeds Far Exceeding the Limit
Rudnick says drivers routinely blow past the posted 55 mph speed limit — often by a wide margin.
“I’m assuming people don’t do 55,” he said. “Everyone’s going at least 10 miles above the speed limit — emphasis on ‘at least.’ I’ve seen motorcycles, cars doing 85, a hundred miles an hour on this road.”
Enforcing those speeds is a problem in itself. Rudnick points out the road has no shoulder, leaving no safe place for a St. Johns County Sheriff’s deputy to run radar.
“They can’t sit and run radar because they have to worry about their own safety,” he said.
FDOT Cites Legal Process
FDOT says it cannot simply lower a speed limit on request. The agency follows a statutory process requiring speed limits on state roadways to be set through engineering studies. Those studies evaluate road conditions and driving patterns using the 85th-percentile speed — the speed at or below which 85 percent of drivers are traveling.
In a statement to News4JAX, FDOT said, in part: “While there are no existing plans to improve the infrastructure at the location at this time, if there are improvements that can be made to enhance the safety of the facilities, FDOT will work to implement them.”
‘Not Listening to the People Who Live Here’
Rudnick says that response falls short. He argues FDOT is making decisions without input from the people who use the road every day.
“The failure is they’re not taking any practical approach,” he said. “They’re looking at this in a vacuum, making a decision in a vacuum — and not listening to the neighbors and the people who live on this road and travel it daily.”
Neighbors echoed that frustration following the weekend crash.
“People are looking at this and saying, ‘Oh, this is just a bunch of privileged people complaining about the speed limit on their road,’” one resident said. “This is a public safety issue. Two lives were lost.”
The St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office is also weighing in. In a statement posted Tuesday, the agency said there have been several fatal and serious-injury traffic crashes on the road this month. It said it understands the community’s concerns and is working closely with state and county officials on potential road improvements.