Alex Cecord, 12, broke a leg and his collarbone. He and a friend were trying to cross the road during rush hour.
By NORA KOCH
Published April 16, 2004
Alex Cecord was flown to Bayfront Medical Center. Police said his injuries could have been much worse.
TARPON SPRINGS - Fifth-grader Alex Cecord was heading home for dinner late Thursday afternoon when he was struck as he crossed U.S. 19 N during rush-hour traffic.
Carrying their skateboards, Alex and another boy ran across the southbound lanes, stopped in the median and continued on toward E Lemon Street, according to Tarpon Springs police. Alex, 12, made it through three lanes of northbound traffic before he was hit by two slow-moving vehicles.
Alex was flown to Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg. Thursday night, his mother, Dana Mossop, said he had a broken leg and broken collarbone and some bumps and bruises. He was expected to be transferred from Bayfront's trauma unit to All Children's Hospital, she said.
Alex, who attends Calvin A. Hunsinger School, and Rob Heinecker, also 12, went to a friend's house to skateboard after school. They watched a movie and played some basketball before returning home. "We used the crosswalk going there, but on the way home he was like, "No, this is the quicker way home,' " said Rob, whose father is the boyfriend of Alex's mother. The boys, the parents and three other siblings live in an apartment on E Lemon Street.
Rob said he saw the silver Lincoln Town Car, driven by Joyce M. Worth, 64, of Trinity, and yelled for Alex to stop.
Worth struck Alex in the right leg, police said. He spun around and fell into the road, where the rear wheels of a 1994 Ford Cargo truck ran over his legs. The truck's driver, Robert Lust, 48, of Holiday, stopped as soon as he felt the impact, police said.
"I didn't know what to think. I was thinking, "Uh-oh, uh-oh. I'm going to be in deep trouble,' " said Rob, a seventh-grader at Chasco Middle School.
Rob ran to the family's apartment, barely a half-block away, to tell Alex's mother. She and her boyfriend, James Heinecker, ran to the scene.
They had been heating oil in a frying pan to cook pork chops for dinner and inadvertently left the stove on when they left the apartment. Smoke built up in the kitchen while they were at the scene and Tarpon Springs Fire Rescue responded.
The kitchen sustained minor smoke damage, which James Heinecker was reparing with a fresh coat of white paint early Thursday evening.
Police are still investigating the accident. Tarpon Springs police Sgt. Jeffrey P. Young said the boy's injuries could have been worse if the traffic hadn't slowed down.
Alex Cecord was flown to Bayfront Medical Center. Police said his injuries could have been much worse.
