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2 students struck by car

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By LISA A. DAVIS

ldavis@tampatrib.com

Published: October 7, 2009

HUDSON - Two teenagers were in stable condition Tuesday after being struck by a car while walking to their bus stop, officials said.

William B. Calder, 13, and Walter Edelman, 15, both of Hudson, were walking in the street when they were hit, troopers said.

It happened on Utica Drive just south of New York Avenue. Part of Utica was shut down while troopers investigated.

The driver, 21-year-old Deanna Leggio of Hudson, told troopers she had to swerve to miss a group of children walking on Utica and didn't see the two boys, who were walking apart from the group, Florida Highway Patrol Sgt. Larry Kraus said.

Leggio wasn't hurt.

Pasco Fire Rescue got the call at 7:05 a.m. Tuesday. The boys were flown by medical helicopter to St. Petersburg hospitals. Troopers spoke with the boys at All Children's Hospital and Bayfront Medical Center.

Edelman is a ninth-grader at Hudson High School and Calder is a seventh-grader at Hudson Middle School, said Jack Greene, district supervisor of transportation operations. Counselors were being sent to both schools, which are on Cobra Way.

The boys were walking to their bus stop at Utica Drive and New York Avenue when they were struck, Greene said.

"It happened quite a ways away from the bus stop," he said.

The school district is investigating. Greene said the bus stop is a long-established one, and he doesn't know of any other incidents in the area.

"We're going out to do a bus stop evaluation," he said.

Utica Drive has no sidewalks or streetlights, and the boys were hit before sunrise. New York Avenue doesn't have sidewalks, either.

Hours after the crash, orange spray paint told part of the story, marking where the car stopped and where the teens were hit.

Leggio couldn't be reached for comment, but her father, Ottavio Leggio, 53, said every day the same children impede traffic, often swearing at cars and making obscene gestures.

"What they do is take the whole road across, and they will not move for the cars," he said. "I'm surprised it's taken so long for this to happen."

His daughter, he said, is cautious when she takes that route to reach her dental assistant job in the New Port Richey area.

She was just trying to get by the teens, Ottavio Leggio said. She called to tell him what happened, he said. "I couldn't even understand her because she was such, in tears, and worried about the boys, too.

"God forbid, it could've been a lot worse."

Reporter Lisa A. Davis can be reached at (727) 815-1083.

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