Megan Silva of Sebring, Fla., was in town visiting her finance’s family last Friday when she was almost struck by a vehicle in a crosswalk with yellow blinking lights near Flug Avenue in Indialantic at approximately 10:32 a.m.
“I pretty simply pushed the button and waited for cars to stop,” Silva said. After the cars had stopped, Silva proceeded to walk across A1A with her dog in her arms.
“I heard honking and then a long honk,” Silva said. “That’s when I saw him hit the other yielding pole.”
Silva was in the middle of the crosswalk when she noticed the dump truck. The truck did not slow down in enough time. A car, in the same lane as the dump truck, had to pass through the crosswalk in order to avoid being hit by the dump truck.
The dump truck veered off the road and hit the pole on the other side of the crosswalk.
The pole was knocked off its base and fell onto the side of the road. Parts of the sign were bent. The driver of the dump truck did not remain at the scene.
“People are just not ready to stop at these crosswalks,” Silva said.
Earlier in the week, Sophia Nelson, 12, tragically was struck and killed by a vehicle in a crosswalk in Satellite Beach. In both Nelson and Silva’s cases, they pushed the buttons for the crosswalk, waited for traffic to stop but, in both cases, one vehicle did not.
Silva has a theory that the reason motorists don’t always stop has to do with the lights being yellow. “Maybe because yellow means yield and caution,” Silva explained. “People don’t think to stop.”
Silva thinks there should be more signs and more education for the public in using the crosswalks.
“People don’t feel safe walking here. It’s a beach town so it shouldn’t be like that,” Silva said.
Written by: Kellie Landi, correspondent