Child's death brings tears, questions in Palm Bay
The tears began streaming within moments after Billie Austin quietly knelt to place an Easter basket and flowers at a rain-dampened memorial. It was a small offering of consolation for a 10-year-old boy struck and killed Wednesday in Palm Bay.
“My daughter goes to the same school. She asked me what happened and she rides a bicycle to school also,” said Austin on Thursday, looking over the teddy bears, balloons and flowers resting along a patch of grass off Eldron Boulevard in Bayside Lakes.
“This is such a busy road. I pound it into her head every day to make sure she’s paying attention. But we have to pay attention also. People just fly down the street and there’s no sign. It’s always busy.”
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Palm Bay Police said the unidentified fourth-grade student was riding his bicycle home from Odyssey Charter School's elementary campus when he was struck by a Chevy 2500 truck. The boy was outside of a school zone where the collision occurred.
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The accident happened about 2 p.m. on Eldron Boulevard, north of Bayside Lakes Boulevard, just after early release. The boy, wearing a helmet and a backpack, had stopped on his Mongoose bike as a pickup truck driven by an unnamed 61-year-old man pulled up to a stop sign to exit the Publix Plaza onto Eldron. He was approximately 100 yards from the school’s campus when the incident happened.
Police are working to determine exactly what happened next, but the driver pulled out of the plaza with the boy being dragged for several feet.
“We don’t think he saw him, but he heard it,” said Lt. Mike Bandish, spokesman for the Palm Bay Police Department. He and other officers and firefighters were at the crash scene within minutes.
“He had all of the safety equipment. We have no indication that the child was playing around. We’re still investigating it,” Bandish said.
Police say a paramedic and a nurse, and possibly other rescue workers, were at the nearby Beef O’Brady’s restaurant. They ran over to find the child on the pavement, badly injured near the mangled bicycle.
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“One witness was on the scene and was talking to him. They tried to resuscitate him,” said Bandish, adding that a crowd of onlookers — including school children watched in horror as the scene unfolded. Officers, firefighters and people in the crowd cried as rescue workers struggled to stabilize the child, Bandish said.
“A lot of big, strong officers…crying. This was a community effort. People wanted to help this child. It was very emotional, a lot of strong emotions,” Bandish added.
The school’s principal and a teacher helped identify the child. Police located the parents a short time later in Melbourne and told them what happened. “It’s just tragic,” Bandish said.
Thursday, grief counselors headed to Odyssey Charter to be available for students and faculty members.
One little girl, Laila Jerozal, 6, said lots of kids were crying at school.
The school sent out a recorded message to parents Thursday morning to warn them to take extra precautions dropping off their kids, and also sent a letter home about the incident.
Police were also expected to return to the site to do laser mapping of the scene, allowing officers to get an accurate measurement of impact and where the truck eventually stop. Green traffic homicide markings remained on the road, easily seen from the same oak-lined path used by students every day to get home to nearby gated subdivisions.
In a statement from Odyssey principal Wendi Nolder, she wrote: “Today we lost a member of our Odyssey family, a unique and wonderful child who touched our hearts in so many ways. We are deeply saddened. The hearts and prayers of our entire Odyssey community go out to his family.”
The boy is the third youth — and the second to be killed —struck by a car in Palm Bay in the last three months.
In January, a 9-year-old boy riding a bicycle was seriously injured after being hit by a vehicle near the intersection of DeGroodt Road and Calabria Avenue in the southeast section of the city. The next day, a 17-year-old Heritage High School student carrying a skateboard was killed while walking along a busy stretch of Emerson Drive. Those cases are still being investigated by law enforcement.
The most recent fatality comes as Palm Bay officers have been taking proactive efforts to combat distracted driving and make travel safer for pedestrians and bicyclists. Lt. Mike Bandish said the department received a grant from the Department of Transportation for that purpose. They're using the money to run increased traffic patrol on certain days.
Several people dropped by the memorial to pay tribute to the boy. One woman walked up to the memorial, placed flowers and then genuflected as she said a silent prayer. She walked past a police officer and patted him on the back as a sign of comfort before leaving.
Austin said she chose to bring an Easter basket to the site before heading to her job because the crash happened as many families look forward to the holidays.
“It’s just so sad,” she said, wiping away tears. "So sad.”
Contact Gallop at 321-242-3642, jdgallop@floridatoday.com and Twitter at @JDGallop