Police have released the name of a teen driver killed along with a passenger early Sunday morning in the construction zone on U.S. Hwy. 27/441 in Lady Lake.
The driver has been identified as 18-year-old Xander Babcock of Fruitland Park. He had been at the wheel of a 2013 Hyundai Elantra at 4 a.m. traveling south on U.S. Hwy. 27/441 at Water Oak Boulevard at a speed that was “too fast for the road conditions,” according to the Lady Lake Police Department. The vehicle left the roadway and struck a curb and then ran into several barricades before entering a ditch and overturning.
Babcock and a 17-year-old rear seat passenger from Leesburg were pronounced dead at the scene. Both had been ejected from the vehicle during the crash. A 15-year-old rear seat passenger from Fruitland Park was transported to Ocala Regional Medical Center in critical condition. None of them had been wearing their seatbelts. A 16-year-old front seat passenger from Fruitland Park was transported to Ocala Regional Medical Center for evaluation. He had been wearing his seatbelt and was not ejected.
The $45 million widening project from Lake Ella Road to Avenida Central (at Griffin Avenue) in The Villages is expected to continue through fall 2023. The project remains haunted by the death of 27-year-old John Joseph Terranova of Leesburg who was buried alive after a retaining wall caved in on him Feb. 2 at the site where the bridge over County Road 25 is being dismantled.
