I-4 Closes 90 Minutes After Semi-Truck Bomb Threat; Driver Arrested

Kelvin Harp, a 49-year-old Tennessee truck driver, allegedly told someone he was hauling bombs through Seminole County on Friday afternoon. The claim, phoned in to the Florida Highway Patrol around 3 p.m. by what appears to be Harp's employer or trucking company dispatch, set off a sequence that shut down eastbound Interstate 4 near Sanford for 90 minutes during the heart of rush hour, stranded thousands of motorists in gridlock stretching back for miles, and ended with Harp in handcuffs and no explosives found.

The tip told FHP that one of their drivers had made a threat "he had bombs in his commercial motor vehicle (truck tractor/semi trailer)." Troopers pulled Harp over near Mile Marker 101-102, just east of the State Road 417 and County Road 46A interchange in Sanford, the stretch of I-4 that runs alongside the old Seminole Towne Center. Once the threat was confirmed, troopers shut the eastbound lanes and called in the Seminole County Sheriff's Office bomb squad.

"FHP was advised that there may be an explosive on the truck and, in an abundance of caution, we requested resources from the Seminole County Sheriff's Office to clear the vehicle," an FHP spokesperson said. Deputies worked through both the truck cab and the trailer. Neither held explosives.

The road closure ran through the late-afternoon peak commute, backing traffic up for several miles along one of Central Florida's most heavily traveled corridors. FDOT and Florida 511 issued real-time alerts urging drivers to seek alternate routes. The fastest diversions in that area run parallel to I-4: State Road 417 continues south and east, County Road 46A connects back toward U.S. 17-92 and downtown Sanford, and State Road 434 offers relief for drivers heading toward Longwood or Casselberry. For anyone caught in a future highway shutdown at that scale, checking Florida 511 the moment brake lights appear ahead, then exiting before the backup solidifies, is the difference between a five-minute detour and a 90-minute standstill.

Motorist Gio Ruiz captured what the gridlock actually looked like from inside it. "Honking, road rage, people with their hands out the windows," Ruiz said. "It was an ocean of cars. It looked like one of those A.I.-generated (videos), when they're like rush hour, they try to make something funny. But no, it was an endless forward, endless backward."

Harp is now at the John E. Polk Correctional Facility, held without bond. Felony charges include making a false bomb report and making terroristic threats. Jail records also list a charge of written or electronic threat to kill or harm another person, and use of a two-way communications device in the commission of a felony, indicating Harp allegedly used a phone to deliver the threat before that call ever reached FHP.

FHP has characterized the case as an active criminal investigation, and the affidavit redacts the identity of the employer or company contact who made the initial call. Whether federal agencies such as the FBI or ATF become involved remains an open question given the interstate commerce dimensions of a bomb threat aboard a commercial tractor-trailer. Under Florida law, making a false bomb report tied to a vehicle on an interstate carries serious felony exposure, and the communications device charge adds additional criminal weight to what began as a threat that briefly turned I-4 into a parking lot stretching past the Seminole-Orange County line.