Dec. 22, 2004 – A Julius E. Sprauve School second-grader died at the scene Wednesday after he was run over by a large Bellows International delivery truck near St. John's sewage treatment plant. It happened at 12:20 p.m.
"It's a tragic accident," Sprauve School principal Mario Francis said.
Francis identified the boy as Javon Alfred. Police Department spokesman Sgt. Thomas Hannah, who declined to identify the boy in case his parents hadn't been notified, said he was 7.
He said the accident remains under investigation.
Francis said Javon was a typical second-grade student. He said Javon was on his way home from school when the accident happened. School had been dismissed early because of the upcoming Christmas holiday.
Hannah said witnesses reported that the truck driver had stopped at the stop sign near the sewage treatment plant at Enighed Pond. He started to inch forward to make a right turn when one of two boys ran across the road. The first boy made it, but the second hesitated. As he hesitated, the truck rolled forward. He started to run again and ran into the truck's tire and got caught in the wheel.
Hannah said he did not know the name of the truck driver, but said he and two witnesses suffered emotional trauma.
Francis said the staff canceled its planned Wednesday night Christmas party.
"It's taken a toll on the entire staff," Francis said.
St. John Administrator Julien Harley said the accident caused a massive traffic tie-up.
He said the police turned the one-way section of Route 104 that runs from the Texaco Station past the Inn at Tamarind Court to the intersection at the sewage treatment plant into a two-way street. He said police allowed about 20 cars at a time to flow in each direction.
Harley said this was the sixth person connected to St. John, including former senator and St. John Administrator Noble Samuel and retired educator Doris Jadan, to die in recent weeks.
"I hope this shadow just goes," he said.