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Tampa Crossing Guard Remains In Critical Condition

CHRIS URSO / The Tampa Tribune

A crossing guard was struck at this intersection in Tampa on Wednesday.

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By KEITH MORELLI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 25, 2007

Previous Coverage: Original Story | Photos

TAMPA - Wednesday morning was dark and wet. Rain pelted the pavement at the corner of West Shore Boulevard and Montgomery Avenue. That's where Beulah May Lofts, in a gray crossing-guard shirt and green pants, was struck and critically injured. She had been at the intersection for only a few minutes.

This morning, as Lofts lay in the intensive-care unit at Tampa General Hospital, classes continued at nearby Monroe Middle and Lanier Elementary schools, just a half-block from where the 76-year-old woman was struck.

Not many children walk across West Shore Boulevard to get to school, maybe a half-dozen, school officials said. Mainly, they come from the Camden Bayside apartment complex on the west side of the road.

Lofts was not escorting children across the street when she was struck. She was walking to her position at the intersection before students showed up.

Tampa police said she walked in front of a BMW driven by Beverly Kermode, 59, of Clearwater. No charges were immediately filed.

Ophelia Saffold stood at the intersection this morning. She's a 28-year crossing-guard veteran and serves as a regional supervisor in the program. She waved to passing drivers, and they all waved back. Her hand-held stop sign leaned against the bright green-yellow school crossing sign on the west side of West Shore Boulevard.

Most of the children crossing here probably are heading to Lanier Elementary School on Montgomery Avenue.

Lanier Assistant Principal Rene Poston said she was detoured around the accident Wednesday morning and arrived at school amid concerns that a child was struck. School administrators ran to the intersection and saw that it was the crossing guard, she said.

"Some parents did stop by to say they were concerned," she said from behind the counter of the school's office this morning. There is no school bus service to the school, she said. All of the students either walk or are dropped off by parents or day care center vans. Most of those who walk come from the neighborhoods on the east side of West Shore Boulevard, she said, and don't have to cross the busy, two-lane road.

Next door is Monroe Middle School, and few students there make the crossing, Assistant Principal Ross Boyd said.

"I came in [Wednesday morning] and saw all the lights at the intersection," he said. "I was concerned that it might have been one of my kids."

Roads at that time of day are dark, and on Wednesday, they were wet, he said.

There are almost 300 crossing guards stationed throughout the county, and Hillsborough County sheriff's officials, who administer the program, said they are always looking for people to take up the duty.

Currently, the sheriff's office is trying to fill about a dozen crossing-guard vacancies. Guards are required to work in the mornings and afternoons and are paid $10 an hour.

The accident on Wednesday was the first involving a school crossing guard this year, sheriff's officials said, and it was the most serious in recent history.

Reporter Keith Morelli can be reached at (813) 259-7760 or kmorelli@tampatrib.com.

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