NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. — In less than two months, two students have been hit by cars while trying to cross the street near Gulf High School in New Port Richey.
New Port Richey police say at 7:14 a.m. Wednesday, a 24-year-old man hit a ninth grader and was cited for failure to yield to a pedestrian at a crosswalk. The student was taken to North Bay hospital with a possible leg injury that was non-life threatening.
“My understanding is that he stopped, the car stopped and then they both moved at the same time when the 9th grader was hit this morning,” Pasco County Schools spokesperson Linda Cobbe said.
The crash happened just three days after a weekly call from Gulf High School principal Kim Davis warned parents about the recently added crosswalk.
Parents near the intersection say they didn’t see the crash but worry about safety. And the mother of the kid hit by a car on Jan. 9 wrote a warning on Facebook.
“Another student hit in the same spot as Jeff...eh y'all didn't really think a lit up crosswalk would fix the problem did you? Nah, just put a crossing guard and change the time to a later time to ensure safety in the daylight,” Ashley Thomas wrote.
“In this situation, the boy did do what he was supposed to do, and the car did stop but for whatever reason, they still collided,” Cobbe said.
Gulfport police say they were out conducting traffic enforcement and made five traffic stops near Gulf, but the crash happened after their shift was over. They say police are usually out at Gulf during school zone hours and five traffic stops is usually the daily average.
Cobbe says another risk factor is students wearing headphones while walking to school, making it harder for them to hear cars and other threats.
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