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Car Hits Woman, Kills Her Child On Notorious Dark Road

October 4, 2005

Sondro Walmer, a 12-year-old Glenridge Middle School student, died, and his mother Sandra Campo, 31, suffered critical injuries about 9:45 p.m. They were struck by a car about a quarter mile south of the nearest light pole at Goldenrod and University Boulevard. Sandra Campo remains in critical condition at Orlando Regional Medical Center. The crash is being investigated by the Florida Highway Patrol.

The Campos were hit when they tried to cross a five-lane portion of the roadway near Restful Street. They were within 100 yards of the entry to their home in The Park apartments. Investigators found the family's Bible on the pavement after the crash but did not know where the mother and child had spent the evening. Campo's relatives could not be reached.

The Florida Highway Patrol is investigating to determine whether lighting or other factors contributed to the crash. Among those factors was the possibility that motorist Sameer Khan, who struck the Campos, had been driving without turning on his headlights. 'We're definitely looking into that,' Trooper Kim Miller, an FHP spokeswoman, said. Khan, 20, of Orlando told troopers his lights were on. A man who gave troopers other information about the crash that proved to be unreliable first raised the issue of Khan's headlights, Miller said.

Although parking lots in the area are illuminated, Miller said Goldenrod is known for its lack of lighting and few crosswalks. Efforts to reduce pedestrian deaths from crossing against traffic include a video being produced for students in Orange County Public Schools, she said. 'There are no street lights there, and it was pitch black,' Miller said. 'You have to learn to walk defensively, because you have 5,000-pound vehicles coming at you, and you're not going to win.'

Each day, about 40,000 vehicles use the two-mile stretch of four-lane road between University Boulevard and Colonial Drive with just one major crosswalk. The stretch of road is bordered by the homes of hundreds of children living in at least five major apartment complexes and seven residential neighborhoods. 'They should have more crosswalks. A lot of kids cross right here,' said Jenn Swasey, who saw Sondro die. 'Cars fly past here so fast, I'm scared to drive.'

Meanwhile, streetlights will finally illumine the dark stretch of Goldenrod Road where the accident happened. The project to erect 396 lights along nine miles of the roadway between Hoffner and Aloma avenues will begin in about two weeks, said Steve Homan, a spokesman for the state Department of Transportation. The $312,000 for construction comes from a federal DOT safety grant awarded about a year ago. Monthly leasing and maintenance fees by Progress Energy range from $7 to $38 depending on the type of utility pole supporting each 250-watt light, Orange County traffic engineers said.

Metropolitan Orlando has the highest pedestrian death rate, per capita, in the United States, according to the Surface Transportation Policy Project. In 2002 and 2003, the years covered in the study, 106 pedestrians were killed in metro Orlando, which includes Orange, Osceola, Seminole and Lake counties. Seventy-five of those died in Orange County.