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Girls critically injured in wreck

Two young girls and a woman were rushed to hospitals. A passer-by may have saved one of the girls by giving her mouth-to-mouth.

By NORA KOCH and DOUGLAS R. CLIFFORD
Published May 13, 2005

PALM HARBOR - Two young girls and a woman believed to be their grandmother suffered life-threatening injuries in a two-vehicle accident on Tampa Road during Thursday afternoon's rush hour, authorities said.

The girls, ages 9 and 11, were in "extremely critical condition" at Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg, Palm Harbor Fire Rescue District Chief Dan Zinge said about 8:45 p.m. Thursday. Neither their names nor the identities of the other people involved in the accident had been released Thursday evening.

Traffic was snarled for an hour just east of U.S. 19 while two Bayflite helicopters landed in the roadway and law enforcement officers and rescue workers worked the accident, which occurred shortly after 5 p.m.

Boulevard W from the westbound lanes of Tampa Road, according to Florida Highway Patrol troopers at the scene.

The car was struck on the passenger side by a blue 1993 Ford F-150 that was traveling east in the center lane of Tampa Road.

The girls were on the passenger side of the Pontiac, one in the front seat and one in the back. Because the pickup was taller than the car, its front bumper went through the passenger side window and rolled the car door over on top of them, Zinge said.

A passer-by, John David Nye Jr. of Odessa, stopped his sport utility vehicle at the accident and crawled into the car to help the girls, Zinge said. Nye, an off-duty emergency medical technician with Hillsborough County Fire Rescue, opened the airway of one girl who was not breathing and gave her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

Nye, who had his own daughter in the back of his vehicle when he stopped, put his own safety at risk when he went into the car to help the girls, Zinge said.

The girls, who were wearing seat belts, had to be extricated after rescuers cut the car door off. The girls were taken by helicopter to Bayfront. The driver of the Pontiac, who was thought to be the girls' grandmother because she kept asking rescuers how her grandchildren were doing, went to St. Joseph's Hospital in Tampa in an ambulance. Her condition was not available Thursday night.

One adult in the truck was taken to Mease Countryside Hospital with nonlife-threatening injuries, and a second was treated on scene.

Firefighters at the scene were rattled by this accident, Zinge said.

"These shake us," he said. "These strike home because half the guys out here have kids these ages."

Staff writer Richard Danielson contributed to this report.

[Last modified May 13, 2005, 01:17:54]