NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- The 2-year-old boy struck by a car Tuesday night in the 400 block of Third Avenue on the beachside was alert and crying when he was flown by Sheriff's Air-one Helicopter to Halifax Medical Center, said investigating police officer Matt Scheaffer who was waiting for an update on the todler's condition this morning.
The child, Caden W. Epps, who suffered a concussion and lacerations, was struck by a westbound 1999 Ford Taurus just as his mother, Christina M. Davis, was putting items in her car after leaving Norwood's Restaurant and Wine Shop.
"She lost sight of the child for a second," Schaeffer said he was told by initial police officers at the scene, He hadn't yet talked to the mother who is with the child at the hospital.
The boy was struck 30 feet from his mother's parked car, Scheaffer said.
A car on the inside lane saw the toddler and immediately braked, but the driver in the outside lane could not see the child and didn't know why the other car had braked, but that prompted him to apply his brakes as well, though the child was still hit by the front right corner of his Taurus.
The driver, 22-year-old Tommy J. Owens Jr., will not be charged because he was not at fault in the accident, Scheaffer said.
Scheaffer said his crash findings are preliminary because he still needs to speak with the mother before completing his report.