A crash at Northeast Waldo Road and East University Avenue on Monday morning left a Newberry man dead and traffic backed up for more than four hours.
Tyler Clayton Gaultney, 31, collided with a semi-truck after he drove through a red light in his Ford Taurus at about 5:30 a.m., said GPD spokesman Officer Ben Tobias. Gaultney was traveling west on East University Avenue in the outside lane while Larry Windle, 68, drove north on Northeast Waldo Road in a semi-truck with an empty log trailer, Tobias said.
At the intersection, Gaultney ran the red light. Windle couldn’t stop his truck in time and crashed into the side of Gaultney’s car, Tobias said.
Although Gaultney’s airbags went off, he didn’t wear a seatbelt, Tobias said, and was thrown out of the car. Officers pronounced Gaultney dead at the scene. Meanwhile, an ambulance took Windle to Shands at UF to treat him for potential injuries.
For the next four hours, police closed the intersection to investigate the crash, Tobias said.
At about 9:30 a.m., police reopened the intersection and traffic returned to normal.
Contact Kathryn Varn at kvarn@alligator.org.
