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 just after noon.
"It's a tragic accident," Mario Francis, Sprauve School principal, said.
Francis identified the boy as Javon Alfred. Sgt. Thomas Hannah, police department spokesman, said he was seven.
Francis said Alfred was a typical second grader. He said the boy was on his way home from school when the accident occurred. School had been dismissed early because of the Christmas holiday.
Hannah said witnesses reported that the truck driver had stopped at the stop sign near the sewage 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 cancelled its planned Wednesday night Christmas party.
"It's taken a toll on the entire staff," Francis said.
Julien Harley, St. John administrator, said that 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.
Hannah said the accident remains under investigation.
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