Highway Patrol Reports Sobering News for Pedestrians

There were 43 fatal pedestrian traffic accidents in a seven-county area including Hillsborough County in 2012.

She simply was trying to catch the school bus to Guinta Middle School on Nov. 16. However, 13-year-old Andrea Bower’s dash across Bloomingdale Avenue during rush-hour traffic ended her life too soon. The teen was struck by a Ford SUV and dragged 20 feet. She later died at Tampa General Hospital. It’s tragedies such as this that is prompting the Florida Highway Patrol to urge increased vigilance on behalf of drivers and pedestrians during the coming year. In the past year, the FHP has investigated 331 traffic crashes involving pedestrians in a seven-county area. Of that number, 43 were fatal. Hillsborough, Pinellas and Pasco counties had the highest number of pedestrian fatalities this year in the seven-county area. There were 12 in …

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Skyway Piers: An Overlooked, Waterfront Fishing Highway

As fishing options are reduced by regulations, gas prices and closed piers, the Skyway Fishing Pier State Park — which includes the world's longest fishing pier — remains.

Eleven hours of sun exposure has broiled the family from Brandon. Their skin is red and dry and sizzling. Ten medium-heavy fishing poles line up toward Tampa Bay like an Army National Guard, holding firm in a gusting southeast wind. Nearby, a few toys and a blue chalk stick lie on the scratched-out details of a child's imagination. Such is life at the concrete beach. Roger Hawk's black, curly hair dances with the wind under a black bandana with fluorescent skull and crossbones. The 10 poles he's put out at the longest fishing pier in the world, the Sunshine Skyway Bridge south fishing pier, are not snagging any Spanish mackerel. His nose snatches open-air saltwater. Used to be Hawk would fish the wooden piers on the sides of the Gandy …

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