accident on 30A today?

That's not good. Nothing in the local papers as of yet.
Nothing on the Highway patrol site for Walton except the fender bender at 393/98 this afternoon.

Had a drowning yesterday due to rip tide.

I saw the car soon after it happened (about 3PM- just west of Wheelhouse). It was a black BMW and it was very smashed up. It looked like it had to be going a lot more than 35MPH. It was in the bike path when I saw it, and there was another blue car( slightly damaged ) on the other side of the road.The state troopers were there, but I didn't see any of the people.

i had a customer come into the market while i was at work, said the bimmer was doing 80+mph, while i doubt the vehicle was going that fast on 30-a, seeing the amount of damage when i left work at 2:30, he had to have been flying

we came upon the wreck just after firetruck and EMS arrived....there was a man on a stretcher & they were putting neck brace on him....don't know if he was from car or pedestrian....the bmw was pretty smashed up....air bags & all....hope that everyone is ok....it was sickening to see

OMG! Sounds like it must have been a wreck...

i had a customer come into the market while i was at work, said the bimmer was doing 80+mph, while i doubt the vehicle was going that fast on 30-a, seeing the amount of damage when i left work at 2:30, he had to have been flying

I don't know about 85mph, but the front end was seriously crumpled;guy looked like he had to been going well over 35 mph. I couldn't figure out how he/she accomplished the feat.

From what I heard the guy in the blue vehicle had stopped to let a bicycle/pedestrian cross. The BMW apparently didn't see him stop and rear-ended him sending him into the bicyclist. The BMW looked totaled to me so he must have been traveling significantly greater than the speed limit.

Driver was trying to commit suicide or something

I was kind of testing the waters to see if it had come out in the news/paper yet, but I talked to someone who was involved and she is actually the person who he rear-ended first up near the Tom Thumb. He then pulled up beside her, rolled down his window and looked at her with a blank stare and took off into the other lane and gunned it. He weaved in and out of traffic going really fast, hitting the guy on a bike and then he was "thankfully" stopped when he hit the blue suv with a family in it who had stopped at the cross-walk near the bike rental place. Nobody was seriously hurt thank the Lord, but someone at the scene said he told them he had taken 50 Xanax and was trying to kill himself. His car did end up being totaled, which sound about right because it was smashed pretty badly. All tolled, six cars were involved and don't know about the driver. He went off in the ambulance.

Unbelieveable!

Very sad. Saw it riding my bike. To bad this individual was so selfish that he had to involve others.

Glad no one was seriously injured. We'll have to wait for the lab and police reports for any conclusions. Someone hit me in a similar situation once. Driver was on OTC meds for bad cold/flu. As it's been pointed out, in this country you are innocent until proven guilty.

I was on that stretch of road serval times yesterday and did see the wreckage. how scary what he was doing. I thank God that I did not get in his path. SCARY stuff! People driving wacked out. I'm looking forward to things getting back to normal around here.

Wow! That's a whole lotta drama considering I never heard anything more than the usual amount of sirens (though more frequently).

If it is true, what kind of arse decided to kill themselves (a very dumb and selfish thing in and of itself) by putting other innocent people in danger?

Wow! That's a whole lotta drama considering I never heard anything more than the usual amount of sirens (though more frequently).

If it is true, what kind of arse decided to kill themselves (a very dumb and selfish thing in and of itself) by putting other innocent people in danger?

There is a whole lot more to this story. Most of it is public record and will be coming out in a few days, I am sure.

Wow! That's a whole lotta drama considering I never heard anything more than the usual amount of sirens (though more frequently).

If it is true, what kind of arse decided to kill themselves (a very dumb and selfish thing in and of itself) by putting other innocent people in danger?

More frequently than what normal people would think. It's truly frightening.

There is a whole lot more to this story. Most of it is public record and will be coming out in a few days, I am sure.

You mean, like, come out in the newspaper?

I didn't see anything about it on the PC television stations. Did anyone else? Is SOWAL now our only source for local news?

Is SOWAL now our only source for local news?

It's my source!

wouldn't it be grayt if the Sheriff posted his news releases on Sowal.....

Still no official reports on this?

wouldn't it be grayt if the Sheriff posted his news releases on Sowal.....

Or, if the local paper picked up the phone and asked the SO what happened (I know that asking them to physically go the the SO to ask for an incident report is waaay too much to ask)?

I want info too, but I don't think it's the SO's job to disseminate this kind of info - I want them to let us know when there is something that could pose a danger to the general public, but as far as reporting on things that happened, that's what a newspaper is supposed to do.

The headline on the NWFDN today was that lots of people came to the beach for the 4th of July. Wow, there's some digging.

don't disagree, but the SO does have a Public Affairs person and they do send out press releases to the media. I am just suggesting that when they do, they could consider Sowal as a local media source and copy Kurt, or post on the board.

The SO saw fit to issue a press release when Mary Brady was arrested.
Wonder what criteria they use when deciding whether or not a press release will be issued?

OK, I'll buy that. I didn't know they had issued a press release on that incident.

Interesting, indeed.

The SO saw fit to issue a press release when Mary Brady was arrested.
Wonder what criteria they use when deciding whether or not a press release will be issued?

It is a good question. I continue to be amazed at how various local government entities choose to issue news releases.

Most law enforcement offices have Public Affairs staff--here, I think it is just one person, and maybe that is an additional duty--however, much can be gained IMO from a government office that pro-actively works with the media and members of the community to get the word out about their activities. We are hampered by not having a very active media community in Walton County, but IMO it could be better if there was more pro-action on the part of both the agencies and the media.

I would be real interested to see what the criteria is for any Walton County government agency to issue a news release. Walton County has a Public Affairs officer too.

I'm wondering if anyone in this conversation about news reporting happened to catch Ted Koppel on NPR yesterday afternoon (I forget which program). It was all about local/national media and their respective roles, how news coverage has changed in the last 30-40 years and so on.

Made me feel better and not so crazy to hear Ted Koppel express similar frustrations to my own: why are "local" papers (except DeFuniak Herald/Breeze) running national/international wire stories instead of covering substantive local news? Why are national media giving so much air time/space to gossip, fluff and screeching punditry rather than serious reporting of actual newsworthy stories?) Of course it comes down to ratings and money, and the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine a decade or two ago...

Then last night on our new Roku (instant viewing of Netflix), we watched Gonzo -- a documentary about Hunter S. Thompson. I had read his writings in my youth but that was a long tme ago! I did not then recognize what a brilliant visionary he was. A jerk, drug addict, philanderer and a lot of other bad stuff, but all that aside, one of the best journalists America has ever produced. He saw and wrote piercingly about all those trends that have brought us to the mess we're in today long before most others.