Woman, 54, hit by car in St. Johns County, firefighters say

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – A 54-year-old woman was airlifted to a hospital Tuesday morning after she was hit by a car on a busy road in St. Johns County, firefighters said.

According to St. Johns County Fire Rescue, the woman was flown to the trauma unit at Orange Park Medical Center.

She was hit by a passenger vehicle about 6:30 a.m. while walking on Dusty Road in St. Augustine. 

Paramedics said her injuries were potentially life-threatening and called in the TraumaOne air ambulance. No one else was hurt.

Residents told News4Jax the fact the woman was hit proves the road is dangerous and something needs to be done to crack down on speeders. 

"Oh my goodness, they go. They go, especially at nighttime, too," said Joan Kozlowski, who lives along the road.

Investigators have not linked the crash to speeding, but locals said drivers treat Dusty Road like it's a racetrack.

"Teenagers, they drive 20 miles over the speed limit," one unnamed resident said.

Others who live in the area said they've seen drivers going 60 mph when the speed limit is 25 mph. 

"There’s two cars I know of that speed through here pretty frequently," said Shawn Dyess, who lives along the road. "I think they need more patrols out here. (I) don’t know that stop signs would help. Maybe speed bumps, but what people are doing, I don’t think speed bumps are going to slow them down either."

The St. Johns County Sheriff's Office told News4Jax it agrees but says it's not able to pay for the much-needed traffic enforcement countywide. 

The traffic division was cut at the Sheriff's Office about a decade ago, during the recession.

According to the Sheriff's Office, the county is growing by between 500 to 1,000 new residents a month, without new deputies to keep up with the population. Then this year, new deputies who were hired had to be diverted to become school security officers in light of a new state law. 

That leaves residents wondering whether anything can really be done about speeding in a county that's growing at such a fast pace. 

Deputies remind people to always call the Sheriff's Office if there's a speeding problem.