1 dead, 2 injured after 6-vehicle crash in Pinellas, troopers say

A 55-year-old St. Petersburg man is dead after a chain reaction crash in Pinellas County that sent two other drivers to area hospitals Tuesday afternoon, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.

The St. Pete man was driving a sport utility vehicle east on County Road 296, also known as 102nd Avenue, when he rear-ended the SUV of a 46-year-old woman from Seminole around 2:15 p.m., the agency said in a news release Tuesday evening. The woman was slowing down for stopped traffic as her vehicle approached the 97th Street N intersection, but troopers said the St. Petersburg man “failed to slow or stop.”

The collision propelled the Seminole woman’s SUV into the SUV of a 20-year-old Pinellas Park woman, who then struck a 75-year-old Largo man’s pickup truck, the release said. The truck driver then hit a 54-year-old Seminole man’s SUV, and the Seminole man’s SUV crashed into a dump truck driven by a 46-year-old Palm Harbor man.

The 55-year-old St. Petersburg man died at the scene, the Highway Patrol said.

The 46-year-old Seminole woman and the 75-year-old Largo man were taken to area hospitals with minor injuries, according to troopers. The other three drivers were not injured.