CAPE CORAL, Fla. (WINK) \u2014 A 13-year-old girl is fighting for her life after a crash at a busy Cape Coral intersection Friday night.<\/p>\n
Cape Coral Police say officers are investigating a traffic crash at the intersection of Santa Barbara Boulevard and Veterans Parkway. All lanes were affected for several hours as crews responded and cleared the scene.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Moments before 13-year-old Stella Piscopo was struck by a vehicle at the intersection of Veterans Memorial Parkway and Santa Barbara Blvd. in Cape Coral on March 20. 2026.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The girl\u2019s mother identifies her as Stella Piscopo. In messages to WINK News, she says Stella is in critical condition and unconscious after suffering serious injuries.<\/p>\n
According to her mother, Stella has a broken leg and hip, a bruised lung, and a small brain bleed. She also underwent surgery and is now being closely monitored.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe next 24 hours will tell us which direction her brain injury goes,\u201d her mother said.<\/p>\n
Stella was initially taken to a local hospital as a trauma alert before being flown to Johns Hopkins All Children\u2019s Hospital in St. Petersburg for further treatment.<\/p>\n
Her mother describes Stella as strong and says she loves her family and friends dearly.<\/p>\n
As police continue to investigate what led up to the crash, some neighbors say this intersection has been a concern for years.<\/p>\n
Jacqueline Chack, who lives nearby, says her son was hit while riding his bike at the same intersection last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt actually was about a year ago, my son was in the crosswalk and a driver ran over him,\u201d Chack said.<\/p>\n
Her son, who was also 14 at the time, suffered a broken leg.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had his leg broken in two spots,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
While he has since recovered, Chack says the experience has had a lasting impact on her family.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy heart breaks, and it sinks every time he leaves the home,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She believes crashes like this are happening too often and says changes are needed to improve safety.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomething has to be done, there is a need for change,\u201d Shack said.<\/p>\n
Cape Coral Police have not released additional details about what caused Friday night\u2019s crash or whether any charges will be filed.<\/p>\n
Stella\u2019s mother tells WINK News her daughter is set to turn 14 on Sunday.<\/p>\n
WINK News will continue to follow this story and provide updates as more information becomes available.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CAPE CORAL, Fla. (WINK) \u2014 A 13-year-old girl is fighting for her life after a crash at a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":200771,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210,325],"class_list":["post-200961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-lee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}