🚀 go-pugleaf

Well, besides environmental damage, SUVs seem to be doing their share of
road damage... Is it the Law of the Jungle?

Posted on Fri, Nov. 22, 2002

Boy riding bike to S. Miami High is fatally hit by SUV driven by fellow
student

BY SOFIA SANTANA AND LUISA YANEZ
A 16-year-old boy riding his bicycle to South Miami High was struck and
killed Thursday morning when a fellow student lost control of his Ford
Explorer and slammed into him, Miami-Dade police said.

Around 7 a.m., Ricardo Faustino Galvan was riding along Southwest 67th
Avenue at 38th Street with close friend Horace Lockhart Tejera, 15.
Suddenly, the out-of-control Explorer jumped the curb and struck them.

Ricardo, a ninth-grader, died instantly. Tejera suffered injuries to his
lower body and was in stable condition Thursday at Miami Children's
Hospital.

The driver, Carlos Socarras, 17, was not injured. Police say charges are
pending while they try to find out why Socarras lost control of the SUV.

News of the tragedy spread quickly around South Miami High. Students
were officially told of the accident around noon, but most knew by then.
Principal Eugene Butler said grief counselors were already in place to
console students.

''We're a close-knit family here and it hit us hard,'' Butler said.
``The teachers were distraught, even those who didn´t have them in
their class.´´

Ricardo's father, Edgardo Bustillo, was about to leave home for his job
as a cook at the Miami Airport Hilton when there was a knock at his
door. Officers solemnly told him that the youngest of his six sons
had just been killed.

For Bustillo, there is a lot of pain and guilt. He said through tears
that he wonders whether things would be different had he not given
Ricardo the bike for his last birthday. He is also tormented because he
might not be able to pay for a proper burial for his son.

Bustillo says he came to the United States 20 years ago from Honduras in
hopes of starting a new life. But he has been struggling financially
ever since -- paying his bills and sending what was left of his
paychecks to his family back in Honduras, where five sons still live.

''Ricardo was a well-behaved child and a good student,'' Bustillo said.
``He lived an active lifestyle and begged me to let him ride his bike to
school.´´

Bustillo's wife, Sarah, suffered a stroke after learning her son had
been killed, family friends said.

''My son is gone and my wife is so distraught she's in the hospital,''
Bustillo said. ``I don´t know what I´m going to do.´´

"What worries me is not the violence of the few, but the indifference of
the many"

"Lo que a mi me preocupa no es la violencia de unos pocos, sino la
indiferencia de los muchos"

M.L. King Jr.

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