WFLX is continuing to follow up after the tragic death of a 14-year-old student who was struck by a vehicle on Port St. Lucie Boulevard last Wednesday. <\/p>\n
Neighbors told WFLX the road can be dangerous during ongoing construction.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t even come down this road no more,\u201d neighbor Selene Gabriele said. \u201cI go all the way down to I-95, come up on Gatlin to take my child to school. It\u2019s very dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n
A 14-year-old was struck by an SUV on Port St. Lucie Boulevard while walking to school just before sunrise on Oct. 7. He later died from his injuries. <\/p>\n
Neighbors like Howard Shapiro said the roadway lacks lighting, especially during the early morning and at night.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t walk around here… no lighting outside at nighttime. Kids walk along all the time because there\u2019s school back there, school down there,\u201d Shapiro said.<\/p>\n
To protect those kids, pedestrians and drivers, Shapiro said they need lights.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are putting in a sidewalk, so that\u2019s gonna be helpful. But street lights need to follow,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The Florida Department of Transportation is in charge of the project along a segment of Port St. Lucie Boulevard from Alcantara Boulevard to Parr Drive.<\/p>\n
FDOT started construction back in 2025 and, according to their website, crews are widening the road from two to four lanes as well as adding new sidewalks and lights.<\/p>\n
Scott Samples with the City of Port St. Luice said this will make the roadway safer.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll see a significant improvement in the safety as well as the traffic flow for this this roadway,\u201d Samples said.<\/p>\n
WFLX asked Samples if city staff can provide any temporary safety measures to address neighbors\u2019 concerns.<\/p>\n
Samples said the work being done is FDOT\u2019s responsibility.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s tough when there is active, ongoing construction, because people still need to utilize it,\u201d Samples said. \u201cThat\u2019s why we encourage everyone to do it as safely as they possibly can.\u201d<\/p>\n
WFLX reached out to FDOT to see if there will be any added safety measures in the wake of last week\u2019s tragedy.<\/p>\n
WFLX is still working on getting a response.<\/p>\n
FDOT said on their website the SW Port St. Lucie Boulevard Project is expected to be completed in the winter of 2028.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WFLX is continuing to follow up after the tragic death of a 14-year-old student who was struck by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":432699,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172],"class_list":["post-432698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432698","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=432698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}