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By MIKE SAEWITZ
© St. Petersburg Times, published April 20, 2001
ST. PETE BEACH -- Thursday morning, Victor Sanchez noticed a small dent and scratch on the silver car belonging to his neighbors, a 90-year-old woman and her 93-year-old husband.
It worried him. The couple, Wanda and Antanas K. Gruzdys, were known to neighbors as avid walkers and active for their age. Still, Sanchez said to himself, "Maybe they shouldn't be driving around anymore."
A few hours later, Mrs. Gruzdys was dead and her husband was in critical condition after a pickup truck driven by an off-duty police sergeant struck their car as it made a U-turn on Central Avenue, police said.
Neighbors were shocked by the news.
"My husband and I always said we hope we're like them when we're older," said Victor Sanchez's wife, Anita, a nurse. "They weren't in a nursing home. They were healthy, took care of themselves."
The accident happened about 1:45 p.m. as St. Petersburg police Sgt. James Arnett Brock was driving a Ford pickup to work, heading east in the left lane of Central near 52nd Street. A slow-moving eastbound Mitsubishi Mirage, in front of him but in the right lane, attempted a U-turn, cutting in front of Brock's pickup, said Officer Mike Preshur, an accident investigator.
Brock tried to avoid hitting the car but didn't have enough time, Preshur said. The pickup hit the driver's side of the Mitsubishi.
Antanas Gruzdys was driving and his wife was sitting in the passenger seat, police said. Both were taken to Bayfront Medical Center, where she died and he was admitted in critical condition. Brock suffered minor injuries and was treated at Edward White Hospital.
No charges were filed Thursday, and police are still investigating the accident. Preshur said Brock was driving about the 40 mph speed limit.
Police identified Mr. Gruzdys' first name as Anthony, as do Florida driver's records. But his phone listing is under the name Antanas, and the mailbox at his home at 3755 Belle Vista Drive E in St. Pete Beach, shows that as well.
Neighbors describe him as a man who speaks in broken English and keeps to himself. His wife, they said, was the picture of good health for her age, taking daily and sometimes twice daily walks around the block, as well as gardening "religiously." The only conversations neighbors remember having with the couple were outside their house, where the couple spent a good deal of time.
"She was just a sweetie," said next-door neighbor Claudette Hollenback.
Hollenback said Mrs. Gruzdys would be up at 6 a.m. taking out the trash and cleaning the driveway "rain or shine." She would always lift her head to say hello. Neighbors thought the couple had lived in their home for more than 20 years.
When Hollenback had a baby girl four months ago, Mrs. Gruzdys came over "out of the blue" to offer her a cash gift.
"She said it was for (my baby's) future," Hollenback said.
Anita Sanchez said she had many short, "light and pleasant" conversations with Mrs. Gruzdys, who offered to give her some window cleaner a few months ago.
"It was her way of telling me I need to clean my windows," Mrs. Sanchez said. "She was too nice to tell me my windows were dirty."
Victor Sanchez said Mr. Gruzdys had some health problems and stopped walking regularly and working on the yard within the last two years. A son who lived nearby would visit the couple about once a week, Sanchez said.
Neighbors, who had driven behind Mr. Gruzdys or watched him pull carefully out of the driveway, said they noticed no problems with his driving.
"He wasn't erratic," Sanchez said.
- Times researcher Kitty Bennett and staff writer Mike Brassfield contributed to this report.