State troopers told News 13 a car driven by Allison Sullivan, 14, was headed north of Absher Road around 10:45 p.m. Saturday, when for some unknown reason, she spun the car into a culvert.

The car went airborne and flipped, throwing passengers out of the right front and left rear doors of the car.

The vehicle came to rest in a wooded area.

Shauna O’Rourke, 12, of St. Cloud, was pronounced dead at the scene.

The driver and three other people in the car — a 25-year-old man, a 3-year-old boy and another 14-year-old girl, all from St. Cloud — were hospitalized with injuries.

The man’s injuries were said to be serious, while the three others were said to have minor injuries.

Shauna and the 25-year-old man were the only ones in the car not wearing a seat belt.

Troopers said charges are pending in the accident.

Source: 13 Central Florida News

When Orlando officials built a new fire station in the Lake Nona area last year, they thought the fire engine would get used more than once or twice a week.

After all, when they started planning Fire Station 16, the economy was booming, new houses were going up quickly and the vision of a high-tech “medical city” had begun to emerge on this far southeast edge of town.

But, according to Fire Department records, the four-man crew at Station 16 hasn’t had a whole lot of work since the station opened in June. In February, they responded to only two emergency calls in their territory — and only 22 in the first four months of 2009.

Things aren’t much busier a few miles away at Lake Nona’s other firehouse, Station 15, which had 78 calls during the same period.

Compare that with Station 2 in Parramore — Orlando’s busiest — which handled 1,948 calls during that time.

The two Lake Nona stations provide a cautionary lesson for a city that has annexed land all the way to the Osceola County line. It’s tough — and expensive — to provide government services to an area so distant from the urban core.

“They were trying to get ahead of what was supposed to be explosive growth out there,” said Steve Clelland, president of the firefighters labor union. “It just died off.”

The stations’ light workload has taken on new significance in light of Orlando’s budget woes. Two weeks ago, Mayor Buddy Dyer proposed cutting about 10 percent of the city’s work force to avoid a budget deficit projected at $40 million next year. The cuts, which hit every city department, include laying off 46 firefighters, eliminating 25 vacant Fire Department positions and taking eight ambulances and a ladder truck out of service.

The cuts would save about $7.5 million — less than what it cost to build and operate the two Lake Nona stations. The two firehouses cost a combined $6.4 million, and with 33 firefighters needed to man them over three shifts, an estimated $2.9 million a year to run.

But the budget cuts wouldn’t touch Stations 15 and 16, which watch over some of Orlando’s swankiest neighborhoods in the 7,000-acre golf and country club development. Staffing at the stations is at the lowest level that administrators consider safe, so any cuts would mean closing one altogether.

Home construction has stagnated since the stations were in the planning stage. As a result, records show that Station 16 has responded to just 61 calls in its territory since it opened 11 months ago, about the same number that firefighters in Parramore handle in three days. There was one small car fire and three brush fires; the rest were medical calls.

Even so, officials defend the decision to build them.

“From the Fire Department’s perspective in conjunction with the planning department, it was the right thing to do at the right time,” Deputy Chief Robert Sorenson said. “We’re building for the future. Down the road, that will be a very vibrant part of the city, and we’ll have the infrastructure in place to support it.”

Station 16, the slower of the two, is close to the “medical city,” where the Burnham Institute opened its facility this month. In fact, the promise of a fire station was part of the incentive package used to lure Burnham here.

Eventually, the University of Central Florida medical school, a new veterans hospital and the Nemours children’s hospital will open there as well.”It’s a low number of calls, but there are other factors at play,” said City Commissioner Phil Diamond, who represents the area. “There was an effort by the city, the county and the School Board to provide high-quality services for those entities that are moving out there. And the residents out there deserve the same protection as residents elsewhere in the city.”

For years, Orange County Fire Rescue responded to calls in the Lake Nona area, even though it’s within city limits. County Fire Station 76 sits roughly between the city firehouses just outside city limits, about 1.4 miles from Station 15 and 3.5 miles from Station 16.

Under a 1994 planning agreement that allowed Orlando to eventually annex nearly 20,000 acres, city officials agreed to pay the county to provide fire protection until the city built its own station in the area.

As more land was developed in the once-rural area, the city’s payments — tied to property values in the area — grew. In 2007, just before Station 15 opened, the city paid the county $1.4 million to serve the area — or roughly half what it’s now paying to operate the two stations.

Fire Department administrators have ruled out returning Lake Nona’s fire protection to the county. The number of calls for service is not the only measure of their importance, Sorenson said.

He cited much faster response times since Orlando took over. Records show that on average, Orlando’s fire crews have arrived at emergencies three to five minutes faster than county firefighters did. Those minutes, firefighters say, count when dealing with a fire or medical emergency such as a heart attack or stroke.

“The quicker you get to the patient’s side, the more likely it is that they’re going to have a positive outcome,” Sorenson said. “In my personal opinion, it’s money well spent when you’re talking lives.”

Lois Peter, 56, said she went to the site on Suburban Drive on Monday night with her 13-year-old granddaughter and two adult friends to leave a cross and see if anyone would take it.

They arrived about 8:30 p.m. and watched the site from their car. That’s when they noticed Dennis Milstead of Kid Finders Network, and friend of the Anthonys, driving up and down Suburban Drive.

They moved their car and Milstead followed them, Peter said. They left the neighborhood and Milstead, who was with his wife, did not follow.

Read the Rest: Women file complaint about car chase involving George and Cindy Anthony