NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. – On a dark section of road in Pasco County, the unspeakable happened to a Spectrum Bay News 9 viewer.
She hit a pedestrian in the middle of the road.
Now she has asked Real Time Traffic Expert Chuck Henson to help so this never happens again.
It’s been exactly a week since Carmella Ellwein’s crash.
“I’m still picking glass out of my arms and legs,” she said. “I’m not sure how long it’s going to be before I drive again. I am mortified to get behind the wheel of a car.”
The crash happened at State Road 54 between Rowan Road and Madison Street in New Port Richey.
“By the time I saw this pedestrian, he was 10 feet in front of my car,” she said.
After the crash, many drivers pulled over to help. Each of them said they had seen the person she hit darting in and out of traffic.
In recent years, SR 54 has gone from a two-lane road to a six-lane highway, and there are no overhead streetlights.
Thousands of cars travel the area every day, yet it’s very dark at night.
“When I used to work from three until midnight, and I would be driving home at midnight, home from work, and every night coming home I’d think, ‘Gosh this is just dark. It’s so dark.'”
According to the Florida Highway Patrol, the man Carmella hit jumped into her path on purpose. To her knowledge he is still in the hospital.
But the call for action, to get this stretch of road lit, is greater now than ever. There are also no protected crosswalks in this stretch.
Kris Carson with the state says it’s in their top ten of a corridor street lighting program.
“We are working with Pasco County to go through the power company to install LED street lights on the existing power poles,” Carson said. “We have already started talks with Pasco County to get a cost estimate.”
Funding for the work is still being secured.
