By Mike Clary and Joe Cavaretta
February 24, 2014
LAUDERHILL —When Ivanka Cancic ran over a 68-year-old woman out for a walk with her church group, police said that was just the start of the Monday morning mayhem.
After hitting pedestrian Betty Greene, authorities said Cancic, 50, sped off in a white Chevrolet truck and knocked over a fire hydrant, unleashing a flood of water that in turn led to a sinkhole-like ground collapse, according to Broward Sheriff’s deputies.
That sinkhole all but swallowed Diane Duchesne’s car.
“I saw my car, I thought, ‘Oh, my God, how am I ever going to get that out of there?’” Duchesne said.
The damage included a huge mess in the parking lot at the Castle Gardens 2 condominiums where Duchesne lives, torn-up sidewalks and curbs, road closures and traffic tie-ups that affected morning dropoffs at several schools, police said.
“It disrupted the whole area,” said Lauderhill Police Lt. Mike Butkus.
The rapid-fire chain of events began minutes after 6 a.m. when BSO deputies were called to a hit-and-run scene at 4757 NW 24th Court in Lauderdale Lakes, said BSO spokeswoman Keyla Concepcion.
Greene, a retired hospital worker, and several of her friends had just begun their daily walk when she was hit from behind, according to her son, Darron Jackson.
“She said she awoke to find herself under the truck and the tire was rolling over her arm,” said Jackson, 38, who brought his heavily bandaged mother home from the emergency room Monday afternoon. “She has tire marks on her arm right now.”
Blocks away Cancic plowed into the hydrant, propelling it 30 feet down the street and sending a plume of water into the sky, police said.