Friends, family raise funds for women killed in Melbourne crash as investigation continues
As family members raise funds to offset funeral costs for two friends killed by an out-of-control pickup truck during a downtown Melbourne evening stroll, police continue to piece together details on what led to the crash on a stretch of sidewalk the city recently rebuilt to increase pedestrian safety.
“We’ve barely scratched the surface of the investigation,” said Sgt. Daniel Desormier, who supervises the Melbourne Police Department’s traffic enforcement unit.
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Investigators are reviewing witness statements, including cellphone video that captures a portion of the Oct. 18 crash that claimed the lives of Rikki Grace, 25, and Megan Taylor Grace, 26, both of Palm Bay. Rikki Grace was a third-grade teacher at Imagine Schools in West Melbourne. Megan Grace, an occupational therapist who was not related, had recently earned a doctorate degree.
The suspected driver, a 29-year-old Satellite Beach man, has not been charged in the case.
Police will look at speed, roadway conditions, the driver’s actions behind the wheel, and also a blood draw to see whether other factors such as drugs or alcohol may have been a factor.
The women were walking in Claude Edge Front Street Park along a sidewalk popular with pedestrians, joggers and bicyclists. This sidewalk paralleling Front Street merges with the paved path that leads over the nearby Melbourne Causeway.
A makeshift memorial now rings the base of a tree near the crash scene, overlooking Hatt's Diving Headquarters and the newly renamed Harry Goode's Outfitters.
Dozens of flower bouquets encircle the tree trunk alongside a gray stuffed teddy bear and two white candles. Three balloons flutter in the breeze from the trunk, where a well-wisher attached two flowered wreaths bearing the wooden initials R.G. and M.G.
Desormier pointed out that the case was the fourth double fatality the agency has worked in the city this year. It was also the third fatal crash Melbourne police worked over the past week.
“All of these cases are tragedies. We have more evidence I need to look at,” Desormier said, adding it could be months before the case could be completed.
The city had recently rebuilt this section of Front Street along the park as part of a "complete streets" project designed to increase safety for pedestrians and bicyclists. Features include bike lanes, a dozen parallel parking spaces, and 5-foot sidewalks on both sides of the road, according to the city website.
On the night of the crash, a raised pickup truck apparently hydroplaned along the roadway, then fish-tailed before veering off the roadway and plowing into the pair.
Rikki Grace died Tuesday night. Her close friend Megan Grace died the following day at Holmes Regional Medical Center in Melbourne.
Brevard Public Schools offered its grief counselors to the Imagine charter school. At the downtown site where the two were struck, the makeshift memorial grows.
Online, Brandon Grace, the brother of Rikki, set up a GoFundMe account to begin the grim task of covering costs for his sibling’s funeral.
“Rikki was the best sister I could have asked for and one of my best friends. She was incredibly driven and always impressed me with her self-discipline and the amount of accomplishments she had attained in life,” Brandon Grace posted.
Tributes for Rikki Grace — a certified nursing assistant who received her bachelor’s degree in biomedical science from Eastern Florida State College before becoming a teacher — also poured in on social media from her Imagine coworkers.
Friends were also asking for financial support for Megan Grace, who earned her undergraduate degree in biology at the University of Florida and a post-professional doctorate of occupational therapy at the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences.
“Anyone who knew Megan would tell you what an incredible person she was. Megan had a contagious smile with the kindest heart,” friends Allen Civita and Robbyn Russell wrote on a separate GoFundMe page for Megan.
“She was loving, caring, brilliant and hard-working and lived life to the fullest, and she was the kind of person you wanted to hold onto forever,” they added.
Both were graduates of Bayside High School. Memorials for the women have not yet been set.
The double-fatal crash happened roughly 700 feet from U.S. 1. That's where Melbourne police have announced increased traffic enforcement during Operation Straw-Haven, a special detail throughout October and November along the U.S. 1 corridor between Silver Palm Avenue (near Green Gables) and W.H. Jackson Street (formerly named Line Street).
Two traffic officers will team up and conduct traffic enforcement at U.S. 1 intersections on select dates between 6:30 to 10:30 a.m. and 12:30 to 4:30 p.m., police announced on Nextdoor.
Officers will watch for speeding, drivers following too closely, red-light violations, improper lane changes, and drivers going straight in the Strawbridge Avenue right-turn-only lane at the U.S. 1 intersection.
J.D. Gallop is a criminal justice/breaking news reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Gallop at 321-917-4641 or jgallop@floridatoday.com. Twitter: @JDGallop.
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This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Investigation continues into downtown Melbourne crash that killed 2 pedestrians
