West News Wire: Authorities in Florida said that a high school quarterback was killed after a motorist struck his truck while he was assisting another vehicle back onto the road on Sunday.
According to the Florida Highway Patrol, a woman operating a Honda Insight failed to notice 18-year-old Nick Miner’s Ford F-150 pickup lying in the road and struck it on Dallas Boulevard in Orlando, not far from Oberly Parkway.
According to authorities, Miner was attempting to assist in bringing a second F-150 pickup that had become stopped on the east shoulder back onto the road. According to an FHP press release, Miner’s truck was overturned in the incident, and he suffered fatal injuries after being ejected.
20 and 17-year-old women were waiting outside the stuck truck and were hit by Miner’s pickup during the collision, the highway patrol said.
They were taken to Orlando Regional Medical Center with non-life-threatening injuries, according to the release.
East River High School Principal Becky Watson issued a statement following the fatal incident, saying she “was notified of the tragic death of one of our students.”
“I know I speak for the entire East River High community when I express the grief felt at the loss of one of our own,” she wrote. “My thoughts and prayers are with this student’s family and friends as they go through this extremely difficult time.”
The high school had grief counselors on campus Monday “for any student or staff member who needs to speak with someone about this loss,” the high school wrote on Twitter.
A memorial has been started at the crash site in Orange County, according to a report.
“It’s a brotherhood, and Nick was like the leader of the brotherhood,” one of his teammates, Cole Strawder, told news reporters. “He went out doing what he was always doing. Helping people out and being a leader.”
The Florida Highway Patrol said there is still an active investigation and charges are pending.
