A Tuesday evening commute took a devastating turn for a local Tampa resident waiting for her ride home. The woman was standing at a public bus stop near the intersection of 56th Street North and Pitch Pine Circle around 7:40 p.m. She was simply going about her evening when an out-of-control sedan came hurtling off the roadway toward her.
Investigators with the Florida Highway Patrol say a Chevrolet sedan was driving south on 56th Street North when the driver suddenly lost control near the corner. The car veered off the asphalt onto the grass shoulder, slammed straight into a roadside culvert, and launched into the air.
The airborne vehicle flew directly toward the northwest corner of the intersection where the bus stop stands. It struck the waiting woman with immense force before hitting the ground and continuing its path of destruction across the pavement.
The runaway Chevy finally came to a halt after smashing into a Toyota sedan that was stopped at Pitch Pine Circle. The forty-two-year-old Tampa man behind the wheel of the Toyota was not injured, but the scene left witnesses in complete shock.
Emergency medical teams rushed to the East Lake-Orient Park neighborhood immediately after receiving frantic calls. First responders found the pedestrian suffering from severe injuries on the side of the road and worked quickly to stabilize her before transport.
Paramedic crews loaded the woman into an ambulance and rushed her to a nearby hospital for emergency care. Doctors worked to save her life, but her injuries were too severe, and she was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at the facility.
Troopers later identified the driver of the Chevy as thirty-three-year-old Benny Wallace. Authorities arrested Wallace at the scene after determining he was impaired, leaving a grieving community to mourn a woman who never made it home from her evening routine.
