SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - A 14-year-old West High School student is dead after he was hit and killed on his way to school Wednesday.
Police say 14-year-old Edwin Cardoso was crossing the road at 600 North and 900 West when he was hit by a truck making a left hand turn. Both Cardoso and the driver had a green light when the accident occurred. Cardoso was taken to the hospital in extremely critical condition and died shortly thereafter.
West High School officials didn’t announce Cardoso’s death to the students. Teachers and counselors were told of the accident, but it wasn’t until lunch that many students got word of Cardoso’s passing.
Salt Lake City School District Spokesperson Jason Olsen told ABC 4 News, “Making a school-wide announcement didn’t feel appropriate in this case.”
Many students at West didn’t hear about the accident until lunch where they heard it from their friends.
“My friend came up to me and told me the kid that got hit this morning, yeah that’s Edwin,” explained Cardoso’s grade school friend Armando Gutierrez.
Olsen said, “Starting around lunch that we had a large group of students, about 25, that were taken up to the counselors’ office because they were having a hard time with the news."
Once more students found out that group got larger.
Gutierrez said. “It’s hard. It’s just that losing one of your friends, it sucks.”
Another of Cardoso’s friends, Robert Arce said, “I don’t want to believe it. I don’t just don’t want to believe it. It’s like, how can something like this just happen?”
Grief counselors will be at the school for as long as they're needed so those students who need to talk can speak to someone about their loss.
