IVINS — A 12-year-old was hit by a pickup truck and injured just before sunrise early Tuesday.
Updated Aug. 30, 5 p.m. to include new details from mother of victim and police.
Police say a white Dodge Dakota driving south on 100 West at the corner with the Center Street Fire Station was making a left turn onto Center Street around 6:30 a.m., which was about a half-hour before sunrise.
The driver of a white Dodge Dakota was headed south on 100 West at the corner near the Center Street Fire Station before making a left turn onto Center Street. What the driver didn’t see, police said, was a girl crossing the street.
Police initially reported the child as being 11 and riding a scooter, but the mother of the child says they were 12 and police say the scooter belonged to someone who came to render aid.
“It was still dark out,” said Sgt. Reed Briggs of the Santa Clara-Ivins Police Department. “There were two witnesses who were pedestrians who said the driver just didn’t see her.”
St. George News has spoken with the mother of the child, who she said by Monday afternoon was back home recovering from her injuries. St. George News is not naming the mother or child because of the girl’s status as a minor.
“I’m so glad he was turning and not going straight, otherwise he’d be going at a faster speed,” the mother said.
She said that her daughter was crossing the street on her usual walk from home to the school bus stop two blocks from the incident site at the corner of 100 West and 200 North for the trip to Lava Ridge Intermediate School over two miles away in Santa Clara. The bus usually leaves at 7 a.m., the mother said, for the first bell of school at 7:40 a.m.
The mother says that she, a single mother, gets ready for work while her daughter gets ready for school. They leave together, though a lot of the time she said her daughter first goes to a friend’s house and they walk to the school bus stop together – though she said her daughter header to the stop directly Tuesday morning.
A little after 7 a.m., the mother got a call from her daughter’s cell phone.
“I thought she missed the bus. And it was an officer,” the mother said, adding the officer said her daughter had been hit by a car while crossing the street. “I was pretty scared.”
The mother said she immediately headed to the crash site, but the Santa Clara-Ivins ambulance had already left to take her daughter to the hospital.
Help didn’t take long to arrive, as the incident happened right in front of the Center Street Fire Station, which returned to operating status 20 days ago. Emergency medical technicians and firefighters from the station responded quickly, Briggs said.
The mother then rushed herself to the emergency room at St. George Regional Hospital and went to her daughter’s bedside. “She didn’t say much,” the mother said. “I just held her hand.”
The girl sustained injuries to the head, face and leg that reportedly were not life-threatening, according to officers. She was subsequently taken to the St. George Regional Hospital.
The mother said there were two women volunteering the help kids get to the bus stop.
“There are ladies – two ladies that wear vests, not part of the school – that I think volunteer in the morning to make sure kids cross the street safely,” the mother said. “(My daughter) said she was told it was clear then proceeded to cross the street.”
According to the Washington County School District, there are no school crossing guards for intermediate schools or bus stops but in the immediate vicinity of elementary schools. Crossing guards are hired by the local cities and usually operate through the police.
Briggs said he knew of no crossing guards, volunteer or not, at the intersection.
“Not that i know of,” Briggs said. “I was just told there were people out walking probably wearing reflective vests because it was dark.”
Briggs said that the child was not on a scooter as it was earlier reported, but that the scooter belonged to a person who came to the site to help render aid to the girl.
The mother said her daughter has a scooter “like most of the kids in the neighborhood do” but doesn’t ride it to the bus.
Police said the child’s clothing matched the darkness of the hour.
“She was wearing darker clothing,” Briggs said. “Nothing reflective.”
Briggs later noted that reflective clothing is a good idea but “not required.”
The mother said her daughter was wearing khaki pants and had white sneakers on.
The mother also said while “not very light,” that time of the morning was dark enough that she needed headlights for her drive to work.
But one thing the mother said she didn’t want to do was spend her time pointing fingers at anyone involved, including the driver of the pickup truck.
“I think for everybody., even the guy (driving the truck), the last thing someone would want to do is hit a kid,” she said.
But there still is the law for the driver to deal with, as Briggs said they were cited for a failure to yield.
This report is based on information provided by law enforcement and may not contain the full scope of findings.
St. George news reporter Jessi Bang contributed to this story.
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