JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The pay is low, the risks are high: School crossing guards step into traffic with only a stop sign for protection.
Action News Jax teamed up with our sister stations around the country and the Associated Press to expose just how dangerous the job can be.
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We looked into why so many are being struck in the crosswalk, and why nothing is being done to fix it.
Our investigators searched media reports and social media to document hundreds of crossing guard accidents in the last decade. We found no one keeps track of those numbers.
In Florida, there have been at least 17 crossing guards injured, with one killed on the job. The guards we spoke with say that doesn’t come close to describing the constant danger they face.
‘It still hurts inside’
Nicholas Gallicchio lives a life of service.
Before joining the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office as a school crossing guard, he spent more than two decades as a firefighter in New Jersey.
After years of rushing into burning buildings, he knew what it meant to face danger. But this time, danger came straight at him when a drunk driver struck him and his partner in 2024.
“We heard a screeching sound, we turned around, and that was it,” he said. “I woke up on the ground. My first reaction was ‘Where’s Don?’ I didn’t care about myself. I was too busy worrying about where my partner is.”
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Pictures from the scene show the aftermath -- significant damage to the car that hit Gallicchio and his 82-year-old partner, Donald Jenkins.
The driver, 56-year-old Robert Noack, was arrested for driving drunk and leaving the scene.
“It still hurts inside. Til this day, I still think about it,” Gallicchio said. “At his age, it should’ve been me that took the biggest blow, and that’s how I felt.”
Gallicchio recovered from minor injuries and returned to work. But Jenkins was hurt too severely to come back.
Half of Florida crossing guards hit were 65+
Their story highlights a national trend of crossing guards being hit on the job. Georgia tops the list of states with the most incidents, and Florida comes in third.
Even locally, two Clay County crossing guards were struck just months apart in 2018. Dashcam video shows the moment a 72-year-old guard was hit outside Oakleaf High School by a teen driver.
Action News Jax, our sister stations around the country, and the Associated Press, uncovered more than 225 incidents of school crossing guards being hit or killed while on the job in the past decade.
At least 40 of the crashes were hit-and-run; six of those drivers were never found.
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In Florida, more than half of the involved crossing guards were older than 65.
Florida and Georgia are near the top of the list of states with the most recorded incidents.
Our investigation found that of the more than 180 cases we were able to track down, more than 70% of the drivers who hit crossing guards got away with just traffic tickets, or no charges at all.
Based on our reporting, cases of extenuating circumstances, like a hit-and-run or a DUI, almost always resulted in criminal charges.
‘You’re not going to lose anything by waiting’
It’s something Gallicchio knows all too well, and now he’s calling for change, pushing for tougher penalties when drivers ignore crossing guards.
“If people just take time. Ten seconds. Thirty seconds. You’re not going to lose anything by waiting. You could be saving a kid’s life, or a crossing guard’s life,” he said.
While Gallicchio knows words alone won’t change drivers’ habits, he hopes penalties like the seven-year sentence for Noack will. A Florida judge sentenced the man in late August and after prison, Noack will serve five years’ probation.
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Gallicchio said it’s time to move on, taking the lesson in stride, like he does each day at the crossing.
“I hope that when he gets out of jail, he realizes ‘I was stupid. I could’ve killed somebody,’ and just be a good citizen. Obey the laws,” Gallicchio said.
We’re going to be asking if laws need to be changed or adopted to increase penalties for people who hit crossing guards. We’ll always be asking if agencies will improve reporting to keep track of these incidents.
Our partners at the Associated Press will have much more on our nationwide investigation of crossing guard safety on Friday morning.
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