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Another driver hit unmarked median

A pickup skidded over the median and into traffic 10 hours after a teenager died there.

By KEVIN GRAHAM and ABBIE VANSICKLE
Published October 12, 2006

VALRICO - Ten hours after a Jeep full of teens collided with a new median and careened off Bloomingdale Avenue, another young driver hit the same unmarked median and veered into oncoming lanes. He escaped injury.

It happened Sunday morning, while friends of victims from the first crash planted a roadside cross in memory of Tyler Clark, 17, the Jeep driver who died.

The Florida Department of Transportation says the median, installed last week by a private contractor, should have been marked with a temporary warning device until its nose could be painted bright yellow and equipped with a reflector pole.

"Normally, we would have had some kind of barricade there until such time when it's 100 percent complete," said Dwayne Kile, a design engineer for the Transportation Department district that includes Hillsborough County. "If everything wasn't finished, that was required for the development to do."

Bloomingdale Avenue is a county road, not under the department's jurisdiction. However, county officials say that contractors who built the median, Dallas 1 Construction & Development Inc. of Thonotosassa, were required to follow department standards, which were noted on project plans obtained by the St. Petersburg Times.

The median was part of a left-turn lane into developer Mark Creager's new Plaza Bella shopping center.

The state standards illustrate mandatory markings and their placement.

The president of the engineering firm that drew the plans said it sometimes takes up to seven days for concrete to harden enough for reflective paint to stick.

Transportation Department engineer Kile said something should have been in place to warn drivers.

Parents of some of the seven injured teens from the crash that killed Tyler have blamed the unmarked median.

But Tyler's father, Dean Clark, said Wednesday he does not.

"It was just a bad accident," he said, "at the wrong place and the wrong time."

Jackie Pifer, 41, called authorities about the median. Pifer is a manager at Babe's Pizza, a restaurant where Tyler used to work.

Late Sunday morning, she was standing near the spot where Tyler died, praying with others, when she heard one boom, then another.

She looked up to see a Ford F-150 pickup skidding across the median.

Aren Tyler Meccariello, 18, of Brandon, was behind the wheel, westbound along Bloomingdale Avenue. His truck, like Tyler's Jeep, hit the raised median.

"Basically, all I could say was, 'See how easily this was done?' He did the same thing that young Tyler did," Pifer said.

Meccariello's driver's-side tires were flattened, Hillsborough sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter said. He was charged with driving on a suspended license. State records show previous citations in Hillsborough and Hernando counties that include speeding and careless driving.

On Monday, Pifer called the Transportation Department to ask that the median be better marked. Others complained to the Sheriff's Office and county government.

Crews painted the median and posted reflectors that day.

Tyler's father said he had heard complaints about the new median.

But he knows they won't bring Tyler back.

"We just want to bury our son and mourn his death."

Times researcher Cathy Wos contributed to this story. Kevin Graham can be reached at kgraham@sptimes.com or 813 226-3433.

[Last modified October 12, 2006, 00:54:56]