Two fatal collisions this month made the total of traffic deaths investigated by the Port St. Lucie Police Department this year exceed the highs of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A total of 14 deaths across 13 traffic homicide investigations occurred this year as of Nov. 11, police records show.
The total surpasses when fatal crash investigations peaked amid the COVID state of emergency. A total of 13 deaths occurred in 2020, along with 12 deaths each in 2021 and 2022. In addition, the number of fatal crashes exceeded the 12 investigated in 2022, the highest it had been over the past decade. By contrast, these totals ebbed in 2023 (7 crashes, 8 dead) and 2024 (8 crashes, 10 dead).
Police responded to a collision between a Dodge RAM pickup truck carrying a utility trailer and an e-bike around 12:09 p.m. Nov. 11, according to a Nov. 12 release.
The e-bike’s rider, Richard Kenneth Douglas Willis, drove off the sidewalk at around 30 miles per hour into the loading ramp of the trailer. The truck had been making a legal turn on a green light.
Willis, 35, then landed onto the roadway. Paramedics rushed him to HCA Florida Lawnwood Hospital, where he was declared dead. The pickup driver remained on-scene.
Another collision involving two cars killed a pedestrian, police releases also said.
Lizzie Ricano-Bornot, 52, died after two cars struck her in rapid succession at the Southeast Port St. Lucie Boulevard/Southeast Wald Street intersection around 7 p.m. Nov. 6, according to a Nov. 7 police release.
A four-door Volkswagen driven by a woman 39, and a four-door Honda driven by a man, 23, traveled eastbound. Ricano-Bornot attempted to cross the non-signaled intersection before the collision.
Police declared Ricano-Bornot dead on-scene. Both drivers, who stayed, did not show signs of intoxication or speeding while obeying the right-of-way.
These incidents could shape further pedestrian and bicycle safety efforts along arterial roads monitored by the Florida Department of Transportation, wrote public information officer MSgt. Dominick Mesiti in a Nov. 14 email.
The High Visibility Enforcement program conducted by city police and FDOT focused on intersections of Port St. Lucie and Gatlin boulevards as recently as May 2025, city records show. The “data-driven” program could divert attention to different roadways when “selected by FDOT in 2026,” Mesiti wrote.
The Port St. Lucie police investigated 4,909 collisions altogether between Jan. 1 and Nov. 13, Mesiti wrote. The figure compares to the 4,877 investigated between Jan. 1-Nov. 13, 2024. The figure marked “a minimal increase compared to the annual growth rate of the city’s population,” Mesiti added.