BY SOFIA SANTANA AND RACHEL HATZIPANAGOS
SUN SENTINEL
A teenage girl died in a collision with a Broward Sheriff's Office patrol car Saturday night, according to witnesses and authorities.
Police identified the girl as Cara Catlin, 14, said sheriff's office spokeswoman Dani Moschella. The driver of the car, Heather Meyer, 21, and another passenger, Gabriel Alegria, 15, were injured and taken to Broward General Medical Center.
The deputy, Frank McCurrie, was taken to Holy Cross Hospital with minor injuries. He did not have his lights or sirens on at the time of the crash, the Sheriff's Office reported.
Family members are grieving for Catlin Sunday, who was as a popular cheerleader at her school.
``It's not OK with us that he didn't have his lights on,'' said Catlin's aunt, Edie Bronder, of Port Saint Lucie. ``My niece is dead and we are angry about that''.
Bronder said that Catlin and Meyer, stepsisters, were grabbing something to eat at McDonald's Saturday evening when the crash happened.
According to the sheriff's office, just before 10 p.m., McCurrie was heading south on Dixie Highway when Meyer was trying to make a left turn at the intersection of Northeast 56th Street and the two vehicles collided.
``Had his lights been on, she would have never made that turn,'' Bronder said.
The sheriff's office is investigating the incident. It was not immediately known how fast the two cars were going or which driver may have been at fault. The sheriff's office could not say Sunday whether the deputy was responding to a call at the time of the crash.
``That will all come out during the investigation,'' Moschella said.
Jonathan Vaden, 23, said he was riding his bicycle on the sidewalk when he saw the crash. He said the girl thrown from the Honda is his friend. She landed under a pickup truck that was stopped at the intersection.
``I checked her pulse, but . . . ,'' he said, shaking his head. Vaden gave a statement to investigators.
The collision was so violent that the Honda's back end was torn off and landed several yards from the car. Family members are trying to set up a fund for Catlin's funeral expenses. Friends on Facebook had started a group for her, which already had more than 50 members by Sunday afternoon.
``She was involved in so many things at school it was hard to keep up with her,'' Bronder said. ``She was an amazing child".
The Miami Herald
