Northbound Interstate 75 through Lee County took three crash calls in twelve minutes this morning, and the one the state is still carrying has the two right lanes blocked at mile marker 144 in North Fort Myers
Stock photo
The Florida Highway Patrol dispatch board is carrying a crash on Interstate 75 northbound at mile marker 144 in North Fort Myers with the two right lanes blocked. The call was received at 9.16 this morning, a unit was recorded dispatched to it at 9.31, and a unit was recorded on scene at 9.36.
The lanes are still down as of the last reading behind this item, taken at 9.39. The remarks field has read two right lanes blocked throughout, and it did not change when the unit arrived, so this is a scene being worked rather than one clearing.
This is the third crash call on this stretch of northbound Interstate 75 in about twelve minutes, and the other two have already come off the board. The first sat at mile marker 141, about two and a half miles south, was received at 9.11 and was the only one of the three typed with injuries. The second sat at mile marker 144 from 9.23 and read middle and right lane. Neither is published any more.
It is worth being careful about what those disappearances mean. This board publishes no clearance column of any kind, which was checked on today's readings rather than carried over from a previous run. A row coming off it is the state ending publication of the call, and it is not the state announcing that the road has reopened. When this board does record a clearance it says so in the remarks field, the way the two other Lee County entries still on it, a southbound crash at mile marker 123 in Estero and the Alva crash this desk covered earlier this morning, both now read roadway is clear. Neither of the two vanished calls ever carried that wording.
The practical effect is that the lane picture has narrowed rather than resolved. Earlier the two mile marker 144 entries between them named the middle lane and both right lanes. Only the two right lanes are named on the row still open, so the middle lane is no longer claimed here.
The board was genuinely populated on every reading, carrying 92, 92, 92, 91 and 86 incident rows statewide across around twenty counties, so none of them is a failed read reporting a false all clear.
These are three separate calls rather than one call being moved about. When this board relocates an incident, as it did on August 22 with one that shifted between markers 126 and 128, the receipt stamp stays the same. These three carry their own receipt times of 9.11, 9.16 and 9.23.
What the board does not settle is whether the two mile marker 144 calls were two distinct crashes or one scene called in twice. Their published coordinates sit about ten metres apart and their receipt times about six minutes apart, and the state does not link calls to one another. Both readings remain open. No causal link between the crash at mile marker 141 and the two north of it is claimed here either, because the state publishes none.
Neither of the mile marker 144 entries is typed with injuries. Only the earlier mile marker 141 call carried that wording, so nothing here should be read as saying anyone was hurt in the call still on the board.
The coordinates the state publishes for the current scene reverse geocode to Interstate 75 in the Slater area of North Fort Myers, postcode 33917, which matches the board's own location tag. No exit number is offered here. The nearest numbered interchange could not be confirmed on this run, and an unverified exit is worse than none for anyone trying to plan a way around the scene.
Beyond the board the public record is empty. There is no cause, no vehicle count, no injury count, no names and no vehicle types for any of these calls. The Highway Patrol has issued no release, the Lee County Sheriff's Office has issued no release, and no outlet had the crashes when this was written. Nobody has been accused of anything.
Nothing in the weather is contributing as far as the record goes. A reading of the National Weather Service active alert feed on this run returned zero active alerts in the whole of Florida, and neither Lee nor Collier is under any weather product.
