HUDSON, Fla. — It’s been five months since a driver hit and killed a teen who was bicycling to school in Hudson.
Myles Farago was hit and killed on Kitten Trail in December 2023 while biking to Hudson Academy.
After his death, Hudson Academy families and neighbors called for safety changes to the dark, unlit roadway.
10 Investigates followed up to find out if county leaders followed through.
Pasco County has now added street lighting and a reduced-speed school zone with signs and flashers on Kitten Trail.
Google Street View images captured last year show the phone poles on Kitten Trail didn’t have streetlights at the top like they do now.
“I was so encouraged to hear that things are changing there on Kitten Trail in Hudson,” Myles’s grandmother Jo Snyder said. “We wish so much that it would have all been put in place when the schools were built. But at least now the kids have a much safer bike ride or walk to school.”
Pasco County tells us it’s also designing a sidewalk, which will include a crosswalk at Cobra Way, which leads to Hudson Academy.
After Myles’s death, Pasco County Schools launched a bike safety initiative.
“Any time something like that happens, it’s always a wakeup call,” Mike Baumaister, Pasco County Schools’ Chief of Safety and Emergency Operations said. “Our county has grown leaps and bounds, and our roadways are getting busier and busier every day.”
The school district partnered with Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital to train school staff on how to properly fit helmets on students.
“If you do fall over, it can shift when you fall, and you could get severe brain damage. And brain damage – it doesn’t heal like a broken arm or anything like that,” said Pasco County 6th-grade student Nadiya Fusi, who says she bikes to school every day.
New red signs at every school in Pasco County remind students to wear their helmets.
The district is giving free helmets to students who don’t have them and handing out reflectors.
“So cars can see you in the morning, this helps,” Nadiya said. “And their light shines on it, and it reflects the light, and it’s easier for them to see you.”
Florida Highway Patrol says Myles Farago was riding in the middle of the road, in the dark, with no helmet when a driver hit him from behind.
FHP tells us it’s still investigating the crash and the driver has not been charged.
Snyder wrote a letter for the driver who killed her grandson. She asked 10 Tampa Bay to share it.
“I pray that this young man has a loving, supportive family and friends that are walking with him through this tragedy. I can't even imagine what he is going through. My daughter and I hold no ill thoughts towards him. He is forgiven for the accident that it was. Dark roads, no sidewalks, and no signs cautioning that there is a big school just around the corner,” Snyder said in her letter. “Things can happen so quickly. Please let this young man know that he continues to be in my thoughts and prayers.”
If you want to see the full video of Myles’s grandmother reading her letter to the driver and the community, you can watch it below.