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USF grad student killed in I-75 wreck

By SHANNON COLAVECCHIO-VAN SICKLER
Published October 13, 2005

TAMPA - She studied anthropology and business at Florida State University, but Angela Justiniano really wanted to be a public librarian. So she enrolled in the University of South Florida's School of Library and Information Sciences and began working toward her master's degree.

Her ideal job, she once wrote, would have her working with senior citizens and children.

But Justiniano, a graduate assistant known for her patience and her cheerful personality, died Tuesday morning in a four-vehicle crash along Interstate 75 in Bradenton. She was 25.

As word of her death spread among graduate students and USF faculty members Wednesday, many posted messages on the School of Library and Information Science's online forum.

"She was our student, classmate, teacher, graduate assistant, friend, colleague, partner in crime, the sunshine in our offices, the hope for the future," wrote Kiersty Cox, assistant director of the school.

Justiniano was the only person to die in the crash at 6:19 a.m. between Moccasin Wallow Road and Buckeye Road, the Florida Highway Patrol said.

She was driving north along I-75 in a 1999 Pontiac and slowed down. Bradenton resident Jorge L. Ruano, 42, was in the same lane and did not see her slow down. He hit the back of the Pontiac with his pickup truck, went off the road and ran into a sign, the patrol said.

Justiniano's Pontiac spun into a third vehicle, and then a fourth vehicle also hit her, troopers said. She was not wearing a seat belt.

Nancy J. Velazquez, a library sciences graduate student who lives in Sarasota, cried when she heard about the crash. "And I didn't even know her that well," she said.

But she remembers how kind Justiniano was this past summer when Velasquez and about seven dozen other students took an intense, weeklong course, which Justiniano helped teach.

"She was so helpful and encouraging and very patient with us," Velasquez said. "She was always smiling, and very gracious. So bubbly."

In a newsletter for the School of Library and Information Sciences, Justiniano, a 1998 FSU graduate, was one of seven graduate assistants profiled before the 2003-04 academic year.

"I am interested in public librarianship and would like to focus on Senior and Youth services," she wrote. "Eventually, I would like to get into administration."

Justiniano's family lives in Green Cove Springs near Jacksonville. They could not be reached Wednesday.

There will be a viewing from 5 to 9 p.m. Friday at Rivermeade Funeral Home, 127 Blanding Blvd., in Orange Park. Interment is 2 p.m. Saturday at Holly Hill Funeral Home, 3601 Jennings Road in Middleburg.

[Last modified October 13, 2005, 16:59:36]