MyPanhandle.com reports on a Bay County accident involving three vehicles that tragically claimed four lives early last Tuesday morning in the Panama City area.

According to representatives of the Bay County Sheriff’s Office, the accident took place on W Highway 388 in Panama City, between Highway 77 and Burnt Mill Creek Road, on Tuesday, September 15 around 6:00 a.m. A sedan driven by a Chipley man was headed east on County Road 388 just east of S Burnt Mill Creek Road, behind a pickup truck driven by a Georgia resident. Simultaneously, a van, driven by a Lynn Haven man with two passengers also of Lynn Haven, was traveling west on the same roadway. When the sedan attempted to pass the pickup, it collided head-on with the van, with the pickup truck getting caught in the crossfire.

The horrific accident shut down Highway 388 until Florida Highway Patrol troopers and other first responders could clear the roadway and reconstruct the events of the multi-vehicle accident, forcing traffic to detour to Highway 79 to access the Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport, and Highway 20 and Highway 98 for general east-west travel.

The sedan’s driver as well as the driver of the van and his two passengers all died in the crash, while the pickup driver suffered minor injuries.