ORLANDO, Fla. — Eight high school students visiting Orlando for a debate tournament were injured in a hit-and-run crash when a vehicle rear-ended a car into their group.
The victims, ages 15 to 18, were students from West Boca Raton Community High School in South Florida.
READ: Two teenagers injured in Orange County SUV collision
Florida Highway Patrol troopers reported that the crash happened on University Boulevard near the University of Central Florida.
A Honda Fit rear-ended a Honda Civic, shoving the Civic into the teenagers who were walking to get pizza.
The initial collision also forced a second Honda Civic off the road. Troopers said the Honda Fit then struck that second Civic before taking off from the scene.
Investigators later located the Honda Fit at a nearby hotel, but the driver was gone.
All eight students were rushed to area hospitals for treatment. A 16-year-old girl was transported to Orlando Regional Medical Center as a trauma alert.
Michael Rodriguez, an eyewitness working at a nearby smoothie shop next to the crash site, said the impact was so loud that employees thought something had happened inside their building.
“I heard a big, like a big explosion type and I was like, ‘What was that?’” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez checked on a co-worker before walking toward the front of the store, where he saw people running outside as emergency sirens began to approach.
“By the time I made it outside, you had people crying on the floor and everything,” Rodriguez said. “The car was in pieces. Then after I looked all the way straight down, the other, the third car the guy hit was messed up.”
The principal of West Boca Raton Community High School told ABC affiliate WPBF that the injured students were members of the school’s speech and debate team in Orlando for a tournament.
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