Everyone was shocked by Saturday afternoon’s car accident in the Lake Worth shopping center where a speeding pickup truck hit several families and killed seven-year-old Savannah Deegear. The truck was driven by 82-year-old Vincente Martinez (other reports list his age at 70 and 84 years old.) Matinez suffers from diabetes and his family has made statements suggesting a seizure or other medical event caused his reckless driving. The police are still investigating was possessed Martinez to speed through the shopping center’s parking lot. The reports indicate he hit three separate families. He struck the Blanco family outside of a Ross department store. Percella Blanco, Blanco’s two small children and a Carol Guzman were hit by the pickup. Blanco, age 25, was reported to be in critical condition after the accident.
Savannah Deegear, WFAA Photo
Martinez went on to wreak havoc in the parking lot outside of Target where he hit two more families before smashing into a parked car. In the Target parking lot at least six people were hit including four children. One young girl was thrown onto a parked car’s windshield. Video of the moment leading up to part of the accident was released, but heavily edited. Witnesses’ accounts of the scene are horrifying. One witness told FOX 4, “That is a once in a lifetime thing…that you should probably never have to see.”
Further articles expand on the victim Savannah Deegear, but the articles about the care-free seven-year-old’s life are almost too painful to read. People have turned the parking space where Deegear was killed into a small memorial with flowers, candles and stuffed animals. As more facts about the accident and its victims emerge, keep a box of tissues by your television.
