Around 12:30 a.m. on Monday, October 28, 2024, a crash occurred on New Tampa Highway just west of Pine Chase Avenue in Lakeland where a green Freightliner semi-truck belonging to Publix and being driven east by a Publix employee struck a 34-year-old Lakeland man who was lying in the roadway. The man died at the scene.
According to the family members of the deceased, he had been at a bar drinking just west of that location earlier in the evening. He had driven his motorcycle to the bar but due to being too inebriated to drive, he told people at the bar that he was going to walk home.
The truck driver saw the man lying face down in the middle of the eastbound lane of New Tampa Highway and took evasive measures to avoid striking him, but was unable to do so. The driver had just ended his shift and was returning the truck to the Publix warehouse.
