Fla. EMS Personnel Challenged by Four Fatal Crashes

March 19--Two women were struck and killed in separate but similarly fluke-like car accidents on Sunday, both crashes taking place far from busy streets and intersections.

One woman, who was pregnant, was lounging in a poolside cabana at a hotel in Fort Lauderdale. The other was leaving morning Catholic mass in Deerfield Beach.

"Our thoughts and prayers" are with the families of the victims of the chance crashes, said Matt Little, spokesman for Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue.

Two children were also run over and killed this weekend, a 14-year-old boy who was skateboarding and a 5-year-old girl riding a toy car.

Police are seeking the driver of the white van that killed the 5-year-old, as he fled the scene without stopping after striking the child.

The poolside victim was seven months pregnant when she was struck at the Riverside Hotel in Fort Lauderdale on Sunday afternoon.

WPLG-Ch. 10 identified the woman as Alanna DeMella who was visiting South Florida from the Boston-area with her husband, Michael.

Her baby also died as a result of the crash, Little said.

"Clearly the incident at the hotel was very tragic and unusual," he said. "No one could expect to be at a hotel swimming pool and face that sort of uncertain danger."

The expectant mother was struck when a car veered off the road to crash through the hotel cabana at 800 S.E. Fourth St. around 1:30 p.m., a press release said. Fire rescue personnel had to extract the vehicle from the wreckage of the cabana.

The woman driving the car was taken to Broward General Medical Center with undisclosed injuries, Little said.

Earlier on Sunday Luciana Porto, 66 and of Deerfield Beach, was killed by fellow parishioner Mary Sczepanski, 88, who backed her car onto the sidewalk.

Both women were parishioners at St. Ambrose Catholic Church, where mass was just letting out around 10:30 a.m. when the crash took place.

Sczepanski struck Porto with her white Buick Century as Porto was walking on the sidewalk, then continued to back up across the church lawn, dragging Porto beneath the vehicle.

Other parishioners saw it happen.

"She backed up so fast, dragging the poor woman, a man came up and opened the door and put on the brake," said Scarlet Useche.

"[The victim] was being dragged underneath the car, I've never seen anything so horrible," she said.

The car stopped on the lawn a few feet away from the northeast corner of the church, at 380 S. Federal Highway. The car came to rest about 50 feet south from the handicapped parking space where Sczepanski may have been attempting to park.

Porto was rushed to North Broward Medical Center after the 10 a.m. accident. She was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Broward Sheriff Fire-Rescue responded with a Regional Technical Rescue team to free the woman who was trapped underneath the car, which had damage on the passenger door side.

A bloody baseball cap and a white jogging shoe sat behind the yellow police tape as curious worshippers streamed out from the 10:30 a.m. Mass and stopped to ask what had happened.

"It was so terrible, when I saw her under the car, I had to turn away," said Maiorisi, who sells soda bread with Useche after the 9 a.m Mass every Sunday.

Sczepanski sat inside her car for about two hours while a BSO Traffic Homicide unit investigated.

When she was helped from the car by a relative and the Rev. Michael Lynch, she walked with the help of a pink cane.

This weekend also brought the accidental deaths of Yanelle Lucero, 5, and Brandon Campbell, 14.

Lucero was riding a battery-operated toy car near her home Sunday afternoon when a white cargo van driving through her neighborhood hit and killed her in the one hundred block of Northwest 67th Street.

The little girl's mother tried to rush her to the hospital while calling for help.

Rescue crews from Fort Lauderdale fire rescue met up with the mother along southbound Interstate 95 near Sunrise Boulevard around 5:30 p.m.

A spokesman for Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue said Yanelle was pronounced dead after arriving at Broward General Medical Center.

The suspect vehicle is described as a newer model white cargo van. The Florida license plate likely starts with the characters 'F5'.

The driver is described as a Hispanic male between 20 and 25 years of age. Witnesses say he is heavy set with curly hair and was wearing a black t-shirt with white lettering.

Anyone with information about the fatal hit and run crash should call Fort Lauderdale Police, Crimestoppers, or Investigator Goedke. You can reach Investigator Goedke at (954) 828-5754.

Campbell was hit while crossing McNab Road in Tamarac on Saturday night. William Corsover, 68 and of Coral Springs, was turning onto westbound McNab Road just before 10 p.m. when he hit the skateboarding teen.

Charges won't be filed until the investigation is closed, a release said.

Information from the Miami Herald was used in this report.

abarkhurst@tribune.com, 954-356-4451

Copyright 2012 - Sun Sentinel, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.