Police have identified the 58-year-old driver who was killed after being ejected from his golf cart and struck by a trailer in a crash in The Villages.
Timothy Byrnes, who had recently purchased a home in The Villages, was operating a golf cart at about 6 p.m. Saturday southbound on the designated golf cart path adjacent to Meggison Road near Albatross Avenue in the Village of Citrus Grove, according to an incident report from the Wildwood Police Department. Eyewitness accounts of the tragic scene flooded social media throughout The Villages over the weekend.
A couple in The Villages who witnessed the crash told police that Byrnes’ golf cart struck a curb, causing him to lose control. He was ejected from the driver’s side of the cart and thrown onto the roadway.
At the same time, a pickup truck towing a trailer, driven by 26-year-old Diego Arredondo, was traveling southbound on Meggison Road. Arredondo told police he saw the golf cart strike the curb and immediately took evasive action, steering across the double-yellow center line in an attempt to avoid a collision.
While the truck itself narrowly avoided striking Byrnes, the attached trailer subsequently struck him.
Fire rescue and EMS personnel responded to the scene, where Byrnes was pronounced dead. The Medical Examiner Office arrived on the scene as part of the investigation.
Both the northbound and southbound lanes of Meggison Road were closed to traffic for several hours while a crime scene perimeter was established. The crash remains under investigation by traffic homicide investigators from the police department.