Teen seriously injured in hit-and-run while walking to Centennial High
October 19th, 2009 by TCPalm.comPORT ST. LUCIE — A hit-and-run driver reportedly struck a 14-year-old boy Monday morning, sending the child to a southern trauma center with a fractured pelvis, bruised spleen and punctured lung, officials said.
About 6:09 a.m., John Szafram was hit by a northbound vehicle in the 4000 block of Southwest Port St. Lucie Boulevard in the area of Southwest Paar Drive.
Szafram was flown to St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach in serious condition, said Catherine Chaney, St. Lucie County Fire District spokeswoman. He was in stable condition at least by 10 a.m.
Arriving rescue crews found Szafram in the grass, Chaney said. Fire District authorities initially said the boy was walking to a bus stop, but later said he was walking to school. Szafram attends St. Lucie West Centennial High School.
The vehicle that struck the boy is thought to have damage to the right quarter panel and/or to the hood or windshield, police stated.
Linda Kinyon, 65, has lived in the area for about seven years and said traffic in the area is “pretty heavy.”
“A lot of people are using this access to go to work,” she said.
Kinyon also said there is a lot of speeding in this area. She said she thought in general that the intersection is well marked.
The incident Monday wasn’t the first time a teen has been struck in the area while walking to school or to a school bus stop.
In September 2006, an 18-year-old student was struck by a hit-and-run driver about 6:15 a.m. as he walked along Southwest Paar Drive to Savona Boulevard where the bus was supposed to pick him up, he said at the time.
Danny Castillo, then a senior at St. Lucie West Centennial High School, reportedly had one foot on the pavement and the other on the grass.
Marianela Waicul was driving a 2001 Ford west on Southwest Paar Drive and struck what she told police she thought was a mailbox before continuing home. She called 911 after reading about the incident in the next day’s newspaper and eventually was arrested about a month after the crash.
Subscribe to TCoastTalk's RSS Feed
Browse the photo galleries here
October 19th, 2009 at 8:25 am
Yet another one… in other news…
October 19th, 2009 at 8:38 am
How does this keep happening? Are the kids walking in the street instead of on the sidewalk? I can’t imagine a car purposefully driving up onto a sidewalk to run someone over, so I am going to guess that these kids are walking in the road with the cars. Funny how these articles never mention where the “victim” was walking when struck by the moving vehicle.
October 19th, 2009 at 8:44 am
Wellington,
You do realize not every community has sidewalks, right or are you a 12 year old on their parents AOL account?
October 19th, 2009 at 8:54 am
Seriouisly? Another teen hit-and-run. These people who drive so recklious, need to get their licenses revoked. These kids need to learn not to walk so close to the street. The counties need to put sidewakls where the kids are required to walk to and from streets and busstops. HONESTLY!
October 19th, 2009 at 8:55 am
I live in PSL and yes we don’t have sidewalks everywhere..only on the major streets..if you’re lucky. AND last I knew…pedestrians had the right of way!
October 19th, 2009 at 8:56 am
This is what you get when cities don’t spend the money to build side walks.
October 19th, 2009 at 8:57 am
Wellington - It’s possible he was in the street, if you Google the location you’ll see that three of the four corners at that intersection don’t even have sidewalks. Makes it kind of hard to walk on what isn’t there. My question is why the lady didn’t stop if she thought she hit *anything* be it a street sign, a mailbox or some kid heading for his bus.
October 19th, 2009 at 9:10 am
bojangles is right. I live 2 roads up from where this happened and there are absolutely no sidewalks in these neighborhoods. There is a small strip of grass for them to walk on, and when they walk to the bus it Is still partially dark out . It’s not the kids fault people don’t pay attention where they are going. My sister rides the bus around here and where she has to wait there is just a small corner of grass for them to stand. I hope they find out who did this, I feel terrible for the boy and his family. I hope he is going to be okay.
October 19th, 2009 at 9:59 am
I live just down the street where this happened. No there are no sidewalks anywhere in this area. The lighting is very bad…most streets don’t have any overhead lights. The kids ride and bicycle on the road and no they don’t move off the road when cars are passing by them. Cars do go too fast, especially in the morning. Most roads are 30, 35 and 40 miles per hour. Our police are no where to be seen during peek travel hours (too busy handing out no lights on license plates warnings). All these issue have been brought up to City, but there is no money for this type of improvements (so they say), but we have a new City Center and Cross Town Parkway! What’s a few kids…right?
October 19th, 2009 at 10:44 am
I dropped my daughter off to the school close by to where this happened this morning. As I was heading home up ahead of me, some kid was walking across the street (totatlly dark) he was in all dark clothing, there are NO street lights…Very dangerous situation I thought after I had seen him in the median.
October 19th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
You spelled my brothers name wrong its Szafran and he wasnt found in the grass no one would stop and help him so he had to walk out in the middle of the road and flag down a truck oh yeah and he WAS walking to his bus stop not to school.
October 22nd, 2009 at 5:56 pm
I live off that road and I think they need to get side walks or at least crossinggards,
Because its not fear for our children to be waiting near the main road for there buses to goto school, speacialy when it is still dark out