{"id":13017,"date":"2012-02-23T15:46:42","date_gmt":"2012-02-23T20:46:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=13017"},"modified":"2012-02-23T15:48:00","modified_gmt":"2012-02-23T20:48:00","slug":"member-of-well-known-family-dies-after-hit-by-hart-bus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=13017","title":{"rendered":"Member Of Well Known Family Dies After Hit By HART Bus"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Hillsborough County Sheriff\u2019s Office reported that on Monday night at 8:50 p. m., Eric Lewis<\/strong>, 43, was hit by an unknown vehicle as he walked in the roadway on 79th Street near Fir Drive. Deputies said the impact was low speed, with the suspect vehicle causing fatal upper body trauma to Lewis<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Deputies said due to the low speed of the impact, it is doubtful there was major damage to the suspect vehicle. Tire evidence at the scene indicated it may have been a vehicle with dual rear wheels.<\/p>\n

Early Tuesday morning, Steven Rickert<\/strong> contacted the Sheriff\u2019s Office and said after watching media reports of the incident, he believed he may have been responsible for the fatal pedestrian incident.<\/p>\n

Rickert<\/strong> told deputies he is employed as a bus driver for HART, and was driving a mini-bus during the time the accident occurred.<\/p>\n

Detectives have met with Rickert<\/strong> and examined the bus. During the examination, detectives identified physical evidence that has linked the bus to Lewis<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

During the interview with Rickert<\/strong>, deputies said he told them he was driving west on Fir Drive and turned onto 79th Street. He said he was not aware he had struck someone until he saw the news reports Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n

Detectives will continue conducting interviews and analyzing forensic evidence. Once the investigation is complete, all information will be turned over to the Hillsborough County State Attorney\u2019s Office for further review.<\/p>\n

The accident victim, Lewis<\/strong> was born in New York City, and came to Tampa in 1983, and graduated from Brandon High School in 1986. He also attended Florida A&M University from 1986 until 1988 studying political science.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Eric\u2019s<\/strong> mother, Ms. Mildred Lewis<\/strong>, said her son was diagnosed with a bi-polar disorder in 1994, and wasn\u2019t employed. \u201cHe loved to write and talked about doing that for a living. He also enjoyed reading.<\/p>\n

\u201cEric<\/strong> and I did a lot of traveling together, and we spent 12 days in Europe in October 2011. He was so thrilled, especially when we went to Paris. He was really in awe of the Eifel Tower.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms. Lewis<\/strong> said Eric<\/strong> knew everyone in the Progress Village area, and although she doesn\u2019t have all the details, she believes he was on his way home when the accident occurred.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomeone in the area said they saw him getting off the bus, so he had probably gone to the store.<\/p>\n

Eric Lewis<\/strong> has no children, and only one sibling, Gwendolyn<\/strong>, who lives in Atlanta. His father, Eugene Lewis<\/strong>, lives in New Jersey.<\/p>\n

Eric is also the nephew of WTMP 1150AM legend, Tom Hankerson<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Ms. Lewis<\/strong> said she and her son were members of Revealing Truth Ministries.<\/p>\n

Aiken\u2019s Funeral Home is assisting the family with arrangements.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Hillsborough County Sheriff\u2019s Office reported that on Monday night at 8:50 p. m., Eric Lewis, 43, was hit by an unknown vehicle as he walked in the roadway on 79th Street near Fir Drive. Deputies said the impact was low speed, with the suspect vehicle causing fatal upper body trauma to Lewis. Deputies said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":210,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/210"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13017\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}