Two early-morning incidents over Halloween weekend pushed traffic deaths in Port St. Lucie Police Department jurisdiction to highs not reached since 2020.
Traffic fatalities in Port St. Lucie reached 13 from 12 incidents in 2025 as of Monday, city police records show.
The Port St. Lucie Police Department and Florida Highway Patrol conducted a joint investigation after receiving reports of a body near mile marker 118 on northbound Interstate 95 around 1:05 a.m. Nov. 1.
Taylor Joan Robert, a 23-year-old woman, jumped from a moving 2017 Dodge Ram pickup near the Gatlin Boulevard/Tradition Parkway exit, according to a Nov. 3 city police release.
Robert rode as a passenger with Harrison Earl, 24, while returning from a Halloween party in West Palm Beach, police reports said. She had been speaking with an unidentified friend over the phone about her intention to jump from the vehicle.
“Moments later, the phone went dead,” the release said, adding that Robert likely jumped to her death around that time. Earl remained on scene.
The Port St. Lucie Police Department also investigated a crash near the Crosstown Parkway/Sandia Drive intersection at approximately 5:45 a.m. Oct. 31, according to a police release later that morning.
A westbound Mercedes-Benz driven by an unidentified “adult male” collided with Victor Santiago, 49, as he traveled northbound on an electric scooter, the release said. The collision ejected Santiago onto the western crosswalk parallel to Sandia Drive while he was crossing.
Paramedics transported Santiago to HCA Florida St. Lucie Hospital, where he was declared dead. The Mercedes driver, who remained on scene, was unharmed.
Both investigations are ongoing. City police disclosed Santiago’s identity in a Monday release.
The last traffic fatality this year occurred when Nicolas Gomez, 80, died July 6 after sustaining injuries in a June 19 crash, police records show. The last fatal collision before Oct. 31 happened June 21, which claimed Jennifer Hadley, 23.
The Port St. Lucie Police Department intends to continue efforts to “mitigate traffic crashes” despite fatal collisions this year reaching the highs of the COVID-19 state of emergency, city police spokesperson Sgt. Dominick Mesiti said in an Oct. 31 email.
Their measures this year include a continuing relationship with the Florida Department of Transportation’s Target Zero program and “high-visibility enforcement” patrols on arterial roads as recently as May 2025, police records show.
In addition, the city plans to add at least 20 uniformed officers and seven civilian personnel with part of the $869.8 million budget in the 2025-26 fiscal year in effect since Oct. 1, city records show.
“All of the 20 new officers, once assigned to road patrol duties, will share in the responsibilities of traffic enforcement within their assigned zones,” Mesiti wrote.
The Port St. Lucie Police Department investigated the “third least” number of collisions in 2024 among 20 police departments serving metro areas with a population of at least 100,000, according to statistics from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement provided by Mesiti.
The city police logged 5,540 collisions in 2024, or approximately 2181.5 collisions per 100,000 people among an estimated population of 253,959. Port St. Lucie trailed behind Palm Bay (1,940.1 collisions per 100,000) and Miramar (2,043 collisions per 100,000).