A 37-year-old Orlando woman was killed, and three young men were critically injured late Sunday night after her Chevrolet Trailblazer collided with an oncoming Mercedes-Benz C-Class at the Colonial Drive and Sherman Street intersection, causing her SUV to turn over. According to a trooper on the scene, none of the four passengers involved were wearing seatbelts, and the incident forced the closure of all eastbound lanes of East Colonial Drive while investigators worked the area.
According to Orlando-News.com, the Florida Highway Patrol said that the incident occurred shortly before 10:30 p.m. on August 30 when the woman’s Chevrolet Trailblazer was stopped in the left-turn lane on westbound Colonial Drive and attempted to turn left onto Sherman Street. As she turned, the SUV entered the path of an incoming 2024 Mercedes-Benz C-Class heading eastbound in the outer lane, and the Mercedes collided with the Trailblazer’s right side, causing it to topple. WFTV identified the SUV as a 2026 model, and the subsequent investigation prompted authorities to stop all eastbound lanes of East Colonial Drive near Sherman Street.
The woman, the Trailblazer’s sole occupant, was declared dead at Orlando Regional Medical Center. The three occupants of the Mercedes-Benz — a 21-year-old Orlando male identified as the driver, a 19-year-old Orlando man, and a 16-year-old Orlando child — all sustained serious injuries and were sent to the same hospital for treatment, according to the original story. According to Orlando Health, Orlando Regional Medical Center has 808 beds and is Central Florida’s sole Level 1 Trauma Center for adult patients, which explains why all four inmates were transported there by emergency services. The Florida Highway Patrol is still investigating the incident, and it is unclear whether speed or impairment had a role in the Mercedes-Benz’s movement or if citations will be issued.
A trooper on the scene told reporters that no one in the crash was wearing a seatbelt at the moment of contact. According to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, seatbelt use is required for drivers, front-seat passengers, and any occupant under the age of 18, and noncompliance is a primary traffic infraction under Florida Statute 316.614, also known as the Dori Slosberg and Katie Marchetti Safety Belt Law. According to state data, 41% of those killed statewide in collisions where seatbelts were mandated were unrestrained at the time of the impact.
According to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration research cited by the Traffic Safety Team, lap-and-shoulder belts reduce the risk of fatal injury to front-seat occupants by 45% and moderate-to-critical injury risk by 50%—figures that carry particular weight in a rollover like Sunday’s crash. According to Florida Statute 316.122, a driver turning left at an intersection must yield to any incoming vehicle close enough to pose an imminent hazard, a criterion established by Cindy Goldstein Law that may influence how investigators finally assign culpability for the crash.
This is not the first tragic left-turn collision on Colonial Drive and Sherman Street. According to the Orlando Sentinel, another person was killed in October 2009 when a car turning left onto Sherman Street collided with an oncoming vehicle at the same crossroads. Colonial Drive, also known as State Road 50, is a member of MetroPlan Orlando’s regional High Injury Network, which consists of roadways that span around 2% of the region’s surface streets and account for more than half of all regional traffic deaths, according to The Orlando Chronicle.
Sunday’s fatality adds to a troubling trend along the highway this year. Hoodline previously reported on an SUV driver who vanished after gravely injuring a lady on Colonial Drive’s shoulder in August, as well as a catastrophic Tesla-bicyclist crash in July and a disastrous three-car pileup in June, both of which occurred on East Colonial. A catastrophic motorbike crash on State Road 50 in March killed another person on the same section of road.
According to numbers published by the law firm Steinger, Greene & Feiner, Orange County had 25,261 traffic crashes in 2025, resulting in 167 fatalities and approximately 19,000 injuries, or an average of roughly 68 crashes each day. In response to the corridor’s recurrent serious crashes, Orange County commissioners voted last month to speed up funding and construction schedules for safety and widening work along State Road 50 in collaboration with the Florida Department of Transportation, WFTV reported. The medical status of the three young men injured in Sunday’s crash has not been made public, and the Florida Highway Patrol’s investigation into the collision is ongoing.
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