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Teen Pedestrian In Dies After Car Crash

November 10, 2005

Chalama Vern Peters, 16, a recent graduate of Jefferson High School, was struck by a car at 5:40 a.m. while crossing Henderson Road near Linebaugh Avenue and Gunn Highway, blocks away from her home, the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office reported. She was taken by ambulance to St. Joseph's Hospital. She later died from her injuries. She was on foot, catching a bus to her morning job at a McDonald's. The driver was behind the wheel of a 1997 Lincoln Mark VIII.

Neighbors awoke 20 minutes later to the wailing of her grandmother, who was being escorted back home by sheriff's deputies. Deputies identified the Lincoln driver as 17-year-old Michael Ryan Elwell. He was headed back to his home in Carrollwood after dropping his father off at work, said the father, Merle Elwell. Michael Elwell left the crash scene and returned home, where a telephone call was made to 911 alerting deputies to the incident, the Sheriff's Office reported. He was charged with leaving the scene of an accident with injury and was taken to the Juvenile Assessment Center.

Veronica Peters always called her eldest daughter 'Gem.' 'She was a princess to me. That's why we call her Gem,' Peters said. 'I prayed to God for her to be a girl. She was the prettiest thing for me. I'd just look at her some days.' Gem was pronounced brain dead at 9:50 p.m. but kept on life support until about 1 a.m.

The stretch of road where Peters was hit is dangerous, said her neighbor, Tara Davis-Payden. 'It's narrow and it's not well-lit, especially at that time in the morning,' she said. Davis-Payden spoke with family members earlier in the day and said they were devastated. 'She was a really quiet, sweet girl. She never bothered anybody,' Davis-Payden said. 'She used to walk down Henderson all the time. I guess she enjoyed walking.'