Flashing lights reportedly caused sea turtle to collide with car near Coquina Beach

BRADENTON BEACH, Fla. — Every year, thousands of visitors come to these beautiful beaches along Anna Maria Island. Locals and visitors can see the hundreds of sea turtle nests marked along the shoreline.

“I was really excited and hoping to see some while I was here,” Delondra James said.

James, visiting Anna Maria Island for the first time from St. Louis, spotted all the nests while enjoying Coquina Beach. “I never had the chance to see that.”

Sea turtles typically lay their eggs at night, then follow the light of the night sky sparkling over the water to the Gulf. But a sea turtle became disoriented last week by new flashing lights coming from a crosswalk near Coquina Beach's north boat ramp, crossed the road and was hit by a car.

“She was alive at the time and gone, which was also even more heartbreaking,” Kristen Mazzarella said.

Mazzarella, executive director of the Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch and Shorebird Monitoring, said she was devastated when she received the call early in the morning.

“It’s a big loss to the sea turtle population when we lose a female, because females nest five to seven times during a nesting season.”

This female sea turtle had just laid a nest, but she still had eggs, which she would have laid later this summer if she had not been killed.

Sea turtles are attracted to light but generally ignore the red end of the spectrum, Mazzarella explained. Local regulations therefore require that lights have some sort of shield or be colored red or pink. The Florida Department of Transportation installed these crosswalk lights last winter, but the white lights weren't activated until last month.

“I informed them of this incident, and the next day they turned off all the crosswalk lights,” Mazzarella said.

There are already 423 sea turtle nests on the island this nesting season. Turtle Watch hopes this turtle's death will raise awareness about the danger of bright lights and what the public can do to save sea turtles.

“It’s nesting season, so what we’re saying is leave the beach clean, dark and flat when you leave,” Mazzarella said. “And leave the beach at night for the turtles, so as not to accidentally disturb the turtles.”