A Natrona neighborhood’s grief over the death of a hearing impaired 11-year-old girl was tinged with anger over the reckless driving they say caused it. Roxanne Alexis Bonnoni died on North Canal Street, just steps from her home, after she was hit by a Jeep Patriot while walking across the road shortly before 7:30 p.m.
Tuesday. A photo of her was nestled in a memorial of stuffed animals and flowers that was growing through the day Wednesday at the nearest intersection with Kuntz Street. “She was a light, and she was a beautiful soul,” said Shateara Holyfield, who, with her daughter, Shy, 11, added to the memorial.
“She was my daughter’s first best friend. That girl was very loving.” Payton Hursh, 15, had coached Roxanne at the Fun and Freedom summer camp since she was little.
“She was a kind, sweet-hearted little girl full of energy,” she said. “She made everyone smile when she walked in a room.” Payton’s sister, Olivia, 13, was closer to Roxanne’s younger sister but knew and played with them both.
“She was always nice to everybody,” Olivia said. “I wish it didn’t happen to her. She didn’t deserve to go through that.
No one does.” At one moment Wednesday morning, Roxanne’s mother, Amber Bonnoni, came out on her front porch, sobbing. She briefly glanced down the street toward the memorial and the spot where the collision occurred before going back inside.
Speaking with reporters later, Bonnoni said Roxanne was going to dress up as a police officer for Halloween. “We just got her costume two days ago. She’s been running around with it all excited,” Bonnoni said.
“That’s what she was doing that day.” Roxanne’s father, Tony Cszimadia, said his daughter was loving, caring, beautiful and smart. “She loved art and loved dogs and animals, loved everybody,” he said.
“She never had a bad thing to say about anybody. She was a great kid.” Bonnoni said the driver has ruined her life.
“There’s not going to be a day or a moment I don’t think about my daughter,” she said, her younger daughter clinging to her side. Roxanne was set to begin sixth grade next week as a new student at the Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf, school Superintendent Kevin McDonough said. She had previously attended DePaul School for Hearing and Speech.
Roxanne had hearing loss, but McDonough did not know to what extent. “She had recently participated in our summer camp and extended school year program. We were excited to welcome her back to campus this fall,” he said.
“Though our time with Roxanne was brief, her vibrant personality and beautiful smile made a lasting impression on all of us.” Allegheny County Police said the driver, whose name has not been released, remained on the scene. Detectives were investigating and will work with the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office to decide if charges will be filed.
North Canal is the road running out of Harrison’s Natrona neighborhood toward Springhill Road, which goes up into Natrona Heights. Coming down the hill, the road flattens past a few blocks of houses before a 90-degree bend toward the more densely developed area of Natrona. !function(){"use strict";window.
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height=i}}}))}(); A few signs warn drivers to watch for children. There’s one stop sign in the area, at Kuhnert Street. The speed limit is 25 mph, and parking is not allowed on either side of the street.
A grass lot diagonally across North Canal Street from Roxanne’s home is where a lot of the neighborhood children play, said Jessica DeVita, who has lived there 10 years. “There’s not much for them to do around here,” she said. Jack Howard was in the back of his home next door on North Canal and said he heard the impact.
“I heard someone screaming. I ran around to the front and saw the girl laying in the road,” he said. “That’s something I definitely did not want to see.
” Howard said he found the driver, who was alone, sitting in the passenger seat of his vehicle, on the phone, saying he had hit a little girl. Howard said the driver never asked him if the girl was OK and didn’t answer when asked if he was OK. “I told him to turn the car off and give me the keys,” Howard said.
“I didn’t want him to leave.” Howard said he gave the keys to a police officer and saw the man taken into custody. Harrison police Chief Brian Turack said he would not comment on the investigation, as it is being led by county police.
Turack did say he had gotten to know Roxanne at Earth Day cleanups. “She was a bright young girl,” he said. “She was very committed to her community and to her dad and mom.
” A resident there for almost 21 years, Howard said he and other neighbors have complained to Harrison officials for 15 years about people speeding on North Canal and running the stop sign at Kuhnert, but nothing has been done. “It’s going to happen again. There’s a lot of children that play down there on North Canal Street,” he said.
“Cars have jumped the sidewalk and almost hit people. It’s a dangerous stretch of road.” Jason Seibert said he and other neighbors yell at people who ignore the stop sign at Kuhnert Street and speed past their homes, claiming they’re going 50 to 60 mph.
“People speed up and down this road all the time,” he said. “If you sit here long enough, you’ll see it.” Howard said the Jeep that hit Roxanne was stopped 30 to 50 feet away from her.
He did not see any skid marks, he said. Seibert, who lives across the street, had to call off work Wednesday. He has a 13-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son.
“Me and my daughter sat up crying all night. She was very emotional about it,” Seibert said. “I was crying.
That could have been my daughter.” Seibert and others said speed bumps or humps would be the only thing that would slow drivers . When they’ve tried their own methods, such as putting out cones, they’ve been scolded for impeding traffic.
“They fly up and down here,” said Walt Sproat, who owns a rental building in the area and calls Cszimadia a friend. “We need four speed bumps to slow them down.” Harrison Township Manager Amy Rockwell did not respond to a request for comment.
Sproat was sympathetic, saying the township does the best it can. “Harrison Township can’t put a guy here 24/7,” he said. Unlike Seibert and Howard, Sproat said he doesn’t yell at drivers.
“You don’t want to holler because they’re liable to start shooting at you,” he said. Resident Chris Harcina called the situation with the road “ridiculous.” “It’s tragic what happened to my neighbor.
It should never have happened,” he said. If the township doesn’t act, Howard says he will. “If I have to start parking my truck out on North Canal to get the cars to slow down, that’s what I’ll have to do,” he said.
“And I’ll pay the tickets.”.
