{"id":64404,"date":"2026-04-01T20:45:47","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T00:45:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=64404"},"modified":"2026-04-01T20:45:54","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T00:45:54","slug":"on-wednesday-april-1-2026-a-fatal-collision-involving-two-semi-trucks-occurred-on-us-98-north-in-polk-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/04\/01\/on-wednesday-april-1-2026-a-fatal-collision-involving-two-semi-trucks-occurred-on-us-98-north-in-polk-county\/","title":{"rendered":"On Wednesday, April 1, 2026, a fatal collision involving two semi-trucks occurred on US 98 North in Polk County"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" id=\"p-rc_32389c5cee0a9067-26\">On <strong>Wednesday, April 1, 2026<\/strong>, a fatal collision involving two semi-trucks occurred on <strong>US 98 North<\/strong> in Polk County.<sup><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"986\" height=\"555\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 986px) 100vw, 986px\" src=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/fatal-crash.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-768\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.7766267123287671;width:339px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/fatal-crash.jpg 986w, https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/fatal-crash-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/fatal-crash-768x432.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" id=\"p-rc_32389c5cee0a9067-27\">According to the Polk County Sheriff&#8217;s Office, the crash happened around <strong>10:50 AM<\/strong> just north of Lakeland.<sup><\/sup> The details released so far include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Casualties:<\/strong> One person has been confirmed dead as a result of the collision.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Hazmat Situation:<\/strong> Authorities reported a potential hazardous materials spill at the scene, which required a specialized response for cleanup.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Road Closure:<\/strong> US 98 was shut down in both directions for several hours to allow for the investigation and clearing of debris.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" id=\"p-rc_32389c5cee0a9067-31\">The Polk County Sheriff&#8217;s Office Traffic Homicide Unit is currently investigating the cause of the accident.<sup><\/sup> Travelers in the area are advised to seek alternate routes as the scene is processed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Wednesday, April 1, 2026, a fatal collision involving two semi-trucks occurred on US 98 North in Polk County. According to the Polk County Sheriff&#8217;s Office, the crash happened around&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":768,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"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":"dois","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAxOVwvMDdcL2ZhdGFsLWNyYXNoLmpwZz9maXQ9OTg2JTJDNTU1JnNzbD0xIiwidHh0IjoiT24gV2VkbmVzZGF5LCBBcHJpbCAxLCAyMDI2LCBhIGZhdGFsIGNvbGxpc2lvbiBpbnZvbHZpbmcgdHdvIHNlbWktdHJ1Y2tzIG9jY3VycmVkIG9uIFVTIDk4IE5vcnRoIGluIFBvbGsgQ291bnR5IiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJkb2lzIiwiZm9udCI6IiIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.T1jBCLfsVxohwJMpZb1FvqnUvhpsBshRIFiex_mpC5EMQ"},"version":2,"media_source":"sig","attached_media":[{"id":0,"url":"","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[13094,14278,14279,9202],"class_list":["post-64404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-13094","tag-a-fatal-collision-involving-two-semi-trucks-occurred-on-us-98-north-in-polk-county","tag-april-1","tag-on-wednesday"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64404","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=64404"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64405,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64404\/revisions\/64405"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}