Car hits student chasing bus

It happened so fast.

One moment 16-year-old Juan Hernandez-Huapilla and his older sister were doing what untold numbers of students had done before them: running to catch the school bus.

The next moment the light changed and his sister was lying in the street, school papers flying in the air.

Nora Hernandez-Huapilla was hit by a car running across busy 66th Street, which her brother had just successfully crossed.

The 17-year-old girl struggled to breathe as she lay on the ground. She was rushed to Bayfront Medical Center but died on her way to surgery.

Hours after the 6:25 a.m. accident at the 70th Avenue intersection, Juan Hernandez-Huapilla still hadn't fully grasped that the oldest child in the family was gone.

"She was always there for me," the teen said.

Nora Hernandez-Huapilla, a Pinellas Park High School student, was running across the street with a friend when she was hit by a 2007 Hyundai that was headed north on 66th Street. The car had a green light, investigators said.

The girls were running across the crosswalk in dark and rainy weather, but the light was red for pedestrians.

The Hyundai's driver, David M. Hoover, 32, of St. Petersburg, is not expected to be charged, said Pinellas Park police Capt. Sanfield Forseth.

"We are deeply sorry to have a family have this tragedy happen at the start of our holiday break," said Pinellas schools spokeswoman Andrea Zahn.

Word of the accident quickly spread at Pinellas Park High. Grief counselors were on hand for students who wanted to talk about Hernandez-Huapilla's death, said Principal John G. Johnston.

"It's very sad," Johnston said. "A number of students are upset."

He called Hernandez-Huapilla a "very nice young lady."

Juan Hernandez-Huapilla described his sister as a student so popular that he was addressed as "Nora's brother" by other students at Pinellas Park High. An 11th-grader, she was the oldest of five siblings and did well academically, he said. She was a participant in S.T.E.P., or Students Targeted for Educational Performance, which is geared toward minority students. She had her learner's permit, her brother said, and neighbors, who remembered her as friendly and polite, saw her driving recently.

While the Pinellas County school district is reviewing the incident to see whether it needs to make any changes in its transportation policies, administrators noted the stop met all the district's requirements.

There is a crosswalk for the students to use at the stop and a traffic light instructing them when they can cross, said Michael Bessette, associate superintendent of facilities, operations, safety and security.

Juan Hernandez-Huapilla, however, said the family had complained that the bus driver was not waiting long enough at the stop for students. Bessette confirmed such a complaint had been made in October and said district officials had talked to the bus driver.

The bus departs from the intersection at 6:25 a.m., and students are expected to get there 10 minutes earlier, Bessette said. He said the bus had just begun loading students, with its stop arms extended, when Nora Hernandez-Huapilla was hit at 6:25 a.m.

Bessette said bus drivers as a rule don't take off if they know of students running for the stop.

There have been a handful of other complaints concerning the stop, but they touched on the bus being late or the stop being too far away from a particular home, Bessette said.

The stop is a so-called arterial stop, or one designated, mostly on major thoroughfares such as 66th Street, for students attending schools out of their designated zones. Any parent whose child has such a bus stop is told it is their responsibility to get the student there before the bus arrives, said schools Superintendant Julie Janssen.