YULEE, Fla. – A 32-year-old motorcyclist was killed Monday morning when he was thrown from his bike into oncoming traffic in a crash on U.S. 17 in Yulee, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.
Troopers said Gordon Songer, of Fernandina Beach, was northbound on U.S. 17 north of Pages Dairy Road about 6:25 a.m. when a van driven by 64-year-old Eric Siegel pulled out from a private driveway into Songer's path.
Songer's motorcycle broadsided the van, sending him flying off the bike, and he landed in the southbound lanes of U.S. 17, where he was hit by an oncoming Nissan Altima, the FHP report said.
Songer was wearing a helmet, according to the report.
News4Jax has learned Songer had a 6-year-old son and was engaged to be married. His fiancee also has a son.
Siegel and the 34-year-old female driver of the Altima were not injured, troopers said.
Charges are pending.
Neighbors worry about intersection
The Nassau County Sheriff’s Office said deputies have responded to 36 crashes at U.S. 17 and Pages Dairy Road this year, and Nassau County Fire Rescue said it has responded to 11 crashes there since January.
The speed limit on that stretch of U.S. 17 is 35 mph.
Drivers said traffic in the area is often bad because it's used as a cut-through to avoid construction zones.
“People use Pages Dairy to bypass all that construction on A1A, and it’s a nightmare most of the time, especially trying to turn onto Pages Dairy,” said Mikey Mott, who works in Yulee.
He suggested adding a traffic light and speeding up work on the construction project that's driving traffic in that direction.
Nassau County officials said they are working on a grant project to make road improvements at the intersection, but they did not release details.