By: Sharon Aron Baron
A woman is in critical condition after being hit by a truck in a Publix parking lot on Thursday.
Around 10:18 a.m. Maria Del Rosario Navarro, 62, of Coral Springs was walking east along the store crosswalk at the Lakeview Center Publix at 400 Coral Ridge Drive. Around this time, Alfonso Romero witnessed a truck driven by Mary Ellen Sowder, 80, of Coral Springs hit Navarro and forced her to stop her vehicle.
Navarro was then airlifted to North Broward Hospital due to her injuries.
Sowder, who was driving a 2003 Nissan Frontier truck, told police that she was looking to her right for a handicapped parking space, however one wasn’t available so she turned right to go to a different aisle to park. As she drove east on the aisle she was stopped by witnesses telling her that she had just hit someone.
Sowder told police that she did not see or feel the impact with the pedestrian. “I heard a thump, not a big thump,” she said. The officer asked if she felt anything like going over a speed bump, she replied no.
Several other witnesses identified Sowder as the driver of the vehicle at the time of the collision.
According to Detective Ernesto Bruna, the driver has not been charged because the investigation is still ongoing.
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