Miss Florida injured in Miami car wreck
By Jaime HernandezSouth Florida Sun-Sentinel
November 8, 2003
MIAMI -- Shauna Pender, who last month was crowned Miss Florida 2003, underwent surgery late Friday after being critically injured when a tractor-trailer tipped onto a car carrying her and three other people in Miami, authorities said.
Pender, a Hollywood resident, was flown to Jackson Memorial Hospital's Ryder Trauma Center after the wreck, which occurred just after 3:30 p.m. on the Dolphin Expressway east of the Palmetto Expressway.
She suffered what Florida Highway Patrol Lt. Julio Pajon described as a "large laceration in her upper torso," and she was listed in critical condition in the hospital's intensive-care unit after surgery.
"At this moment, it's my understanding that she's conscious and talking to the doctors," Pajon told The Associated Press late Friday.
Pajon said rescuers had to cut and pry Pender from the flattened wreckage.
"She was actually trapped in the vehicle for a while," he said. "She was talking to the paramedics."
Pender, 24, was riding in the back seat of a Lincoln Town Car that was westbound on the Dolphin Expressway, Pajon said. A white pickup cut off the Lincoln, and the car's driver lost control when she swerved to avoid a crash. Police did not identify the driver.
The tractor-trailer, which was driving next to the Town Car, also swerved and turned over. The truck fell on the Town Car and slid into a grassy ditch next to the highway, Pajon said.
The car's driver, another passenger and a 5-year-old girl were taken to Kendall Regional Medical Center with minor injuries.
The driver of the rig suffered non-life-threatening injuries, and the pickup left the scene, Pajon said.
Hospital officials declined to release information on Pender's condition, saying they wanted to wait until family members arrived in Miami this morning. A Miss Florida pageant official was at the hospital but declined to talk to reporters.
Pender, who has been living in an apartment in Hollywood, earned Miss Florida honors in October after the pageant's original winner, Ericka Dunlap of Orlando, was named Miss America.
Pender, a former Miss St. Petersburg who graduated from Florida State University with a degree in theater, is a three-time first-runner-up in Miss Florida competitions.
She has competed in numerous beauty pageants around Florida since 1998, including Miss Tallahassee, Miss Azalea Florida, Miss West Coast Florida, Miss Panama City and Miss St. Petersburg earlier this year.
Jaime Hernandez is a reporter for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, a Tribune Publishing newspaper.
Copyright © 2003, Orlando Sentinel
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