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Riverview High death stuns staff, students

Cody Dykes, killed in a car crash Tuesday, is the school's 11th student death in seven years. He loved the outdoors, his principal says.

By JAY CRIDLIN
Published January 28, 2005

RIVERVIEW - Cody Dykes was a normal kid with a great smile who loved the outdoors, according to Bob Heilmann, his principal at Riverview High School.

On Wednesday, as Heilmann recalled his former student, 10 guidance and crisis team counselors were busy comforting more than 150 Riverview students shocked by the news of Dykes' death.

Dykes, 16, died Tuesday and two other Riverview students were injured in a three-car crash on Balm Riverview Road shortly after school let out for the day.

The other students, stepbrothers Matthew Workman and Gregory Hutchinson, both 16, were taken to Tampa General Hospital. After speaking with their father, Heilmann said both boys should be fine and were expected to be released.

Hillsborough County sheriff's deputies said Dykes was driving his Dodge pickup south on Balm Riverview when he swerved into oncoming traffic, sideswiping a 2000 Nissan Xterra and slamming head-on into a 2001 Ford Taurus.

The driver of the Taurus, 30-year-old Joyce Vallancourt of Riverview, was treated at Tampa General Hospital. The driver of the Xterra, 51-year-old Peter Dreyfuss of Riverview, was not injured.

Dykes, Heilmann said, loved to work out and go outdoors. "Cody was a pretty decent student - 3.6 GPA," he said. "He was on a college prep curriculum."

Heilmann said Dykes' was the 11th student death at Riverview High School in the past seven years.

Last April, Thomas Michael Priddy, 17, was struck by a car and killed as he crossed Balm Riverview Road on a bicycle. Hillsborough County has since installed additional signs and markings to the stretch of road where Priddy was killed.

[Last modified January 27, 2005, 09:33:08]