{"id":63787,"date":"2026-03-16T16:02:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T20:02:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=63787"},"modified":"2026-03-16T16:02:23","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T20:02:23","slug":"driver-killed-after-fiery-crash-on-epcot-center-drive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/03\/16\/driver-killed-after-fiery-crash-on-epcot-center-drive\/","title":{"rendered":"Driver killed after fiery crash on EPCOT Center Drive"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A fatal single-vehicle accident occurred on EPCOT Center Drive<\/strong> early Sunday morning, March 15, 2026<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) reported that the crash took place around 1:22 a.m.<\/strong> north of Overpass Road. According to investigators, a 2023 Hyundai Elantra<\/strong> was traveling northbound at a high rate of speed when the driver failed to negotiate a curve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key Details of the Incident:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
    \n
  • The Crash:<\/strong> The vehicle left the roadway in a northwesterly direction and collided with a tree.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • The Fire:<\/strong> Upon impact, the car became fully engulfed in flames.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Casualties:<\/strong> The driver, who has not yet been identified, was pronounced dead at the scene.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    The Orange County Medical Examiner\u2019s Office is working to identify the victim. FHP noted that the vehicle was exceeding the posted speed limit at the time of the collision, and the investigation remains ongoing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This stretch of road (State Road 536) has been a point of concern for local authorities recently, following several high-speed incidents and arrests in 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    A fatal single-vehicle accident occurred on EPCOT Center Drive early Sunday morning, March 15, 2026. The Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) reported that the crash took place around 1:22 a.m. north… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63788,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"14","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDNcL29yYW5nZS1jb3VudHktZmllcnktY3Jhc2gud2VicD9maXQ9NzY0JTJDNDMyJnNzbD0xIiwidHh0IjoiRHJpdmVyIGtpbGxlZCBhZnRlciBmaWVyeSBjcmFzaCBvbiBFUENPVCBDZW50ZXIgRHJpdmUiLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImhpZ2h3YXkiLCJmb250IjoiIiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTYzMDQwNjYxfQ.DERwdEoJIc026_wKpBogN6A8jpTZu-qtm_FsvgxP8TgMQ"},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[14],"tags":[14085],"class_list":["post-63787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-driver-killed-after-fiery-crash-on-epcot-center-drive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63787"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63787\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63789,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63787\/revisions\/63789"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}