\n\t\t\t\t\t\tThe last thing Monica Piscopo said to her 14-year-old daughter before she left home Friday night was a simple reminder.\u201cDid you bring a hoodie?\u201d she recalled.Her daughter, Stella, was heading to a friend\u2019s house on her scooter \u2014 a trip her mother said typically takes about 30 minutes and one she had made many times before.Stella never arrived.When the girl\u2019s friend contacted Piscopo to say she hadn\u2019t shown up and wasn\u2019t answering her phone, the mother immediately feared the worst. She had heard reports of a crash at the intersection of Santa Barbara Boulevard and Veterans Parkway.\u201cI immediately thought it was her,\u201d Piscopo said.Police later confirmed Stella had been involved in a collision with a pickup truck at the busy Cape Coral intersection.Video from the scene shows Stella crossing along the sidewalk while the traffic light was green before the crash. The impact itself was not released publicly due to its severity.\u201cSeveral people told me it was bad \u2014 really bad,\u201d Piscopo said.The intersection, a heavily traveled area in Cape Coral, is known for constant traffic. Local residents say navigating it requires extra caution.\u201cI don\u2019t cross the intersection unless I\u2019m assured that the driver sees me,\u201d said Lance Grady, a bicyclist in the area. \u201cYou want to make eye contact if you can.\u201dStella was taken to a hospital in St. Petersburg, where she remains in serious condition. Her injuries include a brain bleed, a broken leg and a fractured pelvis. She has been unconscious since the crash.The incident came just days after her 14th birthday.However, there are early signs of improvement. Piscopo said her daughter briefly opened her eyes and began making what doctors described as purposeful movements.\u201cIt\u2019s a good sign,\u201d she said.Cape Coral police said speed, drugs and alcohol were not factors in the crash.Piscopo said she remains hopeful about her daughter\u2019s recovery and is urging other young riders to be cautious.\u201cBe more careful with these e-bikes and scooters,\u201d she said. \u201cThese accidents are happening more and more.\u201dDOWNLOAD\u202fthe free\u202fGulf Coast News app\u202ffor your latest news and alerts on breaking news, weather, sports, entertainment, and more on your phone or tablet. And check out the Very Local Gulf Coast app to stream news, entertainment and original programming on your TV.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tCAPE CORAL, Fla. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
The last thing Monica Piscopo said to her 14-year-old daughter before she left home Friday night was a simple reminder.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid you bring a hoodie?\u201d she recalled.<\/p>\n
Her daughter, Stella<\/a>, was heading to a friend\u2019s house on her scooter \u2014 a trip her mother said typically takes about 30 minutes and one she had made many times before.<\/p>\n Stella never arrived.<\/p>\n When the girl\u2019s friend contacted Piscopo to say she hadn\u2019t shown up and wasn\u2019t answering her phone, the mother immediately feared the worst. She had heard reports of a crash at the intersection of Santa Barbara Boulevard and Veterans Parkway.<\/p>\n \u201cI immediately thought it was her,\u201d Piscopo said.<\/p>\n Police later confirmed Stella had been involved in a collision with a pickup truck at the busy Cape Coral intersection.<\/p>\n Video from the scene shows Stella crossing along the sidewalk while the traffic light was green before the crash. The impact itself was not released publicly due to its severity.<\/p>\n \u201cSeveral people told me it was bad \u2014 really bad,\u201d Piscopo said.<\/p>\n The intersection, a heavily traveled area in Cape Coral, is known for constant traffic. Local residents say navigating it requires extra caution.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t cross the intersection unless I\u2019m assured that the driver sees me,\u201d said Lance Grady, a bicyclist in the area. \u201cYou want to make eye contact if you can.\u201d<\/p>\n Stella was taken to a hospital in St. Petersburg, where she remains in serious condition. Her injuries include a brain bleed, a broken leg and a fractured pelvis. She has been unconscious since the crash.<\/p>\n The incident came just days after her 14th birthday.<\/p>\n However, there are early signs of improvement. Piscopo said her daughter briefly opened her eyes and began making what doctors described as purposeful movements.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a good sign,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Cape Coral police said speed, drugs and alcohol were not factors in the crash<\/a>.<\/p>\n Piscopo said she remains hopeful about her daughter\u2019s recovery and is urging other young riders to be cautious.<\/p>\n \u201cBe more careful with these e-bikes and scooters,\u201d she said. \u201cThese accidents are happening more and more.\u201d<\/p>\n DOWNLOAD\u202fthe free\u202fGulf Coast News app<\/a>\u202ffor your latest news and alerts on breaking news, weather, sports, entertainment, and more on your phone or tablet. And check out the Very Local Gulf Coast app<\/a> to stream news, entertainment and original programming on your TV.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The last thing Monica Piscopo said to her 14-year-old daughter before she left home Friday night was a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":203185,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[93475,2954,209,8522,211,210,1776,104,1089,13958,2620,213,4428,93473,24187,20730,3577,93474],"class_list":["post-203184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-14-year-old-daughter","tag-area","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-crash","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-crash","tag-entertainment","tag-family","tag-friend","tag-intersection","tag-late-news","tag-phone","tag-piscopo","tag-recovery","tag-scooter","tag-sign","tag-stella"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203184","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=203184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}