BARBERVILLE -- A young motorcyclist killed Tuesday after hitting a Jeep Cherokee head-on after passing another vehicle on State Road 15 near Barberville, has been identified as 18-year-old James M. Haskins of DeLeon Springs, the Florida Highway Patrol said.
Haskins had passed a northbound vehicle on a rain-slicked road when he was struck by Maris M. Mendez, 32, Pierson, who was driving south. She tried to pull to the right to avoid him, but he pulled wide left, apparently hoping to avoid her as well in the 9:25 a.m. crash, troopers said, before they collided in the road-side grass.
Haskins, who was wearing a helmet, was reported dead at the scene. The Jeep overturned and landed on its roof in a shallow watery ditch and the driver was transported to Florida Hospital DeLand with critical injuries, the FHP said.