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Sheriff: Victims killed in Davenport crash weren't wearing seat belts

Staff photo by CHRIS COYNER

The crash killed a man, a pregnant woman and an 11-month-old baby.

TBO.com

Published: September 15, 2009

Updated: 09/16/2009 10:34 am

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Lucero Tijerno

Layla Pinto-Tijerno

DAVENPORT - Three people, including a 17-year-old who was five months pregnant and her 11-month-old daughter, were killed when the car they were in was struck on a rural stretch of U.S. 27 in Davenport on Tuesday evening.

The unborn child also did not survive, the Polk County Sheriff's Office said.

The driver of the car, William Coe, 21, of Haines City, is in Lakeland Regional Medical Center in stable condition.

No one in the car was wearing a seat belt or restrained, the sheriff's office said.

The driver and passengers in the other vehicle were not seriously injured.

The crash, which happened at 6:41 p.m., killed Eduardo Lopez, 20, of 502 Majesty Drive, Davenport. Lopez was a passenger in the front seat of the 2000 Oldsmobile Aero.

Lucero Tijerno, 17, of the same address as Lopez, was a passenger in the rear of the car and died when she was thrown from the vehicle.

Her baby daughter, Layla Pinto-Tijerno, was also thrown from the rear seat, the sheriff's office said. The baby was in a car seat but not restrained, and she died at 9:56 p.m. after being flown to Arnold Palmer Children's Hospital in Orlando and undergoing surgery, the sheriff's office said.

The crash occurred when Coe, who was heading south on U.S. 27, tried to turn left onto Citrus Ridge Drive and was hit broadside by a 2000 Chrysler Town and Country van driven by Francisco Alverez, 19, of Davenport, the sheriff's office said.

Alvarez's girlfriend, Claudia Aguirre-Castillo, 18, was treated and released from Heart of Florida Regional Medical Center in Davenport with a broken leg, the sheriff's office said.

Aguirre-Castillo's 5-month-old, Romeo Estevez, was in a child seat and restrained.

Polk Sheriff Grady Judd said that if everyone in the Oldsmobile had been wearing seat belts, the outcome may have been different.

"It is a tragedy anytime anyone loses their life, especially in a vehicle crash," Judd said. "And especially when they're not seat-belted in. And our preliminary information tells us that it appears that the lady was not seat-belted in and neither was the baby."

The crash closed the northbound lanes of U.S. 27 until 1 a.m.

The sheriff's office said alcohol does not appear to be a factor in the accident but the investigation is continuing.

Reporter Neil Johnson can be reached at (813) 259-7731.

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