As I was driving Kevin to the airport this morning, I witnessed a young girl get hit by a van. Because I was the one driving, I was paying attention to the road ahead and saw her crossing the street. Kevin saw it too, but he noticed after she had been hit and lying near the sidewalk.
Her bright orange jacket stood out as she was jogging from other side of the street. A white sedan in the left lane put on the brakes and stopped for the girl, but the van in the right lane wasn’t making any indication of slowing down and I remember thinking to myself, “I hope he sees her!”.
Well, he did not see her. He hit her as she was crossing in front of him. I noticed she rolled after flying a few feet to the right. I truly think this is what saved her life. If she had been going any slower, she would have been hit dead-on and her body or head would been run over.
I immediately pulled over, got out my cellphone and called 9-1-1. The van pulled over further down, and for a few seconds, I was worried that the van wouldn’t stop. A city bus was behind me and pulled over next to the intersection, blocking traffic from the right. A lady from the bus got out and helped the girl up onto the bus, because she was thrown into a cold puddle next to the sidewalk.
The girl was seated on the bus when I got to her, cellphone in hand. I held her and she started crying. She seemed like she was in shock and very scared. Her hair was wet and cold. Putting my left arm around her, I told her not to move too much. She begged me not to leave her and I assured her I wouldn’t. I found out later that she was on her way to school.
Within a few minutes, several police officers, a fire truck and ambulance pulled up. Several officers asked if I had seen what happened. I spoke with each of them and recalled what I had seen while they took notes.
I watched as she was carried into the ambulance with lots of bloody scrapes and bruises, a broken foot (and possible leg), possible fractures to her ribs and possibly something wrong with her neck, because they put a neck brace on her.
By the time we got back in my car, almost an hour had passed, but it seemed like it happened in the blink of an eye. I am so grateful that she walked away alive.. and so happy that we were there to help, because no one else had a cellphone!