| Car hits visitors near Speedway Staff Writers Last update: 14 January 2004 |
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DAYTONA BEACH -- Cousins Juan Mora and Sebastian Restrepo had spent
almost a month in Daytona Beach from their native Colombia enjoying a
vacation that was supposed to end today.
The driver of the 1993 Saturn that hit them, 42-year-old Jeanette
Pfalzgraf-Norris of Port Orange, told police she never saw the cousins
crossing the road because the sun was in her eyes as she drove west on
International Speedway, near Fentress Boulevard. Excessive speed did not
appear to be a factor in the incident, investigators said.
"Witnesses said they (Mora and Restrepo) were trying to cross as
quickly as they could," said Sgt. Al Tolley, Daytona Beach police
spokesman.
Police said Mora was in critical but stable condition, and Restrepo was
in stable condition at Halifax Medical Center on Tuesday evening. Both
were taken to the hospital by EVAC ambulance with multiple fractures, said
EVAC spokesman Mark O'Keefe. A nursing supervisor at the hospital would
not give the cousins' status, she would say only that they were "being
evaluated."
In the trauma waiting room at Halifax on Tuesday evening, the family
members, who were supposed to meet Mora and Restrepo at the racetrack,
said they did not witness the accident.
However, they did see the cousins lying on the street and Mora's
overturned wheelchair a few hundred feet from the Speedway's pedestrian
crossover.
"We had split up for lunch and were driving to the Speedway to meet
them," said Restrepo's father, Julian Restrepo, who lives in Palm Coast.
"As we were turning at the light to get back to the Speedway, we saw a
wheelchair on the road."
Julian Restrepo said he immediately had a sinking feeling in his
stomach that the toppled wheelchair belonged to his nephew Mora.
"I knew it was him right away," Restrepo said. "Then I saw my son
Sebastian lying on the road."
The family, 10 people including Mora and Restrepo, had been here almost
a month visiting with Julian Restrepo at his Palm Coast home. Tuesday was
the clan's last day here, and they decided to make an afternoon of it at
the racetrack.
"I was supposed to drive them all to Fort Lauderdale on Wednesday so
they could fly back to Bogota," Julian Restrepo said. "The rest of the
family will go home, and my son and Juan will be admitted into the
hospital."
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