Toddler only survivor as 4 die in car struck twice
By Compiled from Times wires
Published July 1, 2003
BAGDAD - A 2-year-old boy was the only survivor in a car disabled by a rear-end collision and then hit by a semitrailer truck on Interstate 10 in the Florida Panhandle.
Two women and two young girls, all from Miami, were killed in the Saturday crash. Only Larry Brown III survived.
"That boy just happened to be the small person in the back behind the front seat. He had some cuts, but nothing major," Bagdad Volunteer Fire Chief Claude Dunlap said. "He started crying and calling for his mama when we pulled him out of the car."
Killed in the accident were Rosalinda Hernandez, 21; Keri Lynn Smith, 24; Ashlei Ann Brown, 1; and Tianna Nicole Brown, 3.
The boy was transported to Sacred Heart Hospital and later released. It was unclear if he was released to family members or the state's child welfare agency.
The group was traveling west on an I-10 overpass near Bagdad at 3:30 a.m. Saturday when their two-door 1999 Chevrolet was hit in the rear by a 2002 Mazda driven by Naamon Wright Jr., 52, of Enterprise, Ala., according to a Florida Highway Patrol report.
The impact from the crash left the Chevrolet disabled in the Interstate. That's when the truck, driven by Darryl Johnson, 34, of Quincy, came over the overpass, struck the car in the rear and drove over it, the report said.
"Imagine an 80,000-pound vehicle coming at you at 70 miles an hour," Dunlap said. "It's a miracle that even one survived."
Charges were pending the outcome of an investigation.
Bagdad is about 17 miles northeast of Pensacola.
Thousand of pupils told they flunked - but didn't
FORT LAUDERDALE - Thousands of Broward middle school students who received failing report cards at the end of the school year did not, in fact, flunk.
Corrected report cards are being sent to 6,559 students, along with this explanation: "Due to a programming error, your student was incorrectly identified as being retained. Please disregard the previous report card."
Broward school district officials learned of the problem Thursday when the incorrect report cards started hitting mailboxes and unhappy parents started calling schools.
"It's a shame that this happened, and we certainly send our apologies to everyone that received one of those incorrect report cards," said district spokesman Kirk Englehardt.
The erroneous cards went to just over 10 percent of the 64,000 students who were enrolled in sixth through eighth grades during the 2002-03 school year.
Homemade craft carries five Cubans to the Keys
KEY LARGO - Five Cuban migrants on a homemade craft made it to land in the Florida Keys and were taken into custody by the U.S. Border Patrol.
The men used oars and a hand-sewn sail to guide a 12-foot boat into shallow water Sunday evening near the Ocean Reef Club in Key Largo. Once there, they abandoned the craft and scattered into the mangroves.
Border Patrol agents picked up the men about 7 p.m. They appeared to be in good health, Agent Joe Castillo said.
Castillo said it was too soon to know whether the migrants were smuggled, but he said that didn't appear to be the case.
"It looks to me like a homemade venture," Castillo said.
Under federal government policy, Cubans who make it to land can usually stay in the United States after spending a few days in custody being interviewed and processed. Those caught at sea are usually returned to the communist island.
Police say officer fatally shot girlfriend, self
NORTH MIAMI BEACH - A Miami-Dade County police officer fatally shot his girlfriend and then himself, police said.
North Miami Beach officers responded about 2:25 p.m. Sunday to a report of shots fired at the home of Sandra Bee Wilson, 42. They found Officer Leon Storr, 38, a 16-year veteran, dead. Wilson died at Jackson Memorial Hospital.
Wilson had worked as a county police records clerk for 15 years.
