Document text
Hit-run driver injures boy whose mom asked for crossing guards Mail Tribune / Steve Johnson Last spring, Kelly Carson tried to get volunteer crossing guards set up at this intersection near Washington School in Medford. School officials are rethinking their decision not to use crossing guards after Carson�s third-grade son, Kristopher, received bruises and scrapes from a hit-and-run driver there last week. Now, school officials might hire guard By Vicki Guarino A west Medford parent whose traffic fears drove her to try to set up a volunteer crossing guard last spring is nursing her son�s injuries from a crosswalk accident last week. On Wednesday morning, Kelly Carson�s son, Kristopher, was poised to cross at Hamilton and Dakota streets near his home. His father made sure cars were stopped and then motioned his young son to cross. But Kristopher made it only part of the way before a motorist decided to drive on, striking the Washington Elementary School third-grader in the lower leg. Kristopher is badly bruised, scraped and shaken. Medford police are looking for a hit-and-run driver. School officials are rethinking their decision to not hire a crossing guard for the intersection. And Kristopher�s mother is stunned, angry and more determined than ever to put the brakes on traffic through the neighborhood. "I�m just amazed that it�s my son that this happened to," says Carson. "After everything I�ve done to try to protect kids out here." One of Carson�s worst fears has come true. Carson had put notices in Washington School�s newsletter and around the neighborhood last spring asking parents to join her in setting up an adult crossing guard program at Hamilton and Dakota streets. Many students cross daily, but because the intersection is at the back of the school and out of sight of most Washington staff, the school can�t post student crossing guards at the intersection. At the time, Carson said she had seen many close calls between the elementary school students and drivers who weren�t stopping for them, despite the marked crossing and the four-way stop signs. No volunteers came forward to help Carson, a working mother, guard the crossing. On Wednesday, just before 8 a.m., Kristopher set out to walk the one block to school. His father, Mike Espinosa, stood at the corner and his mother watched from the house. Cars in both directions stopped for Espinosa, and Kristopher walked part way in front of the nearest car. As he got to the driver�s side, the driver � a woman with three kids in the car � accelerated past Kristopher and kept going. Carson saw her son try to dodge the car, but he couldn�t move fast enough. "I can�t imagine her not seeing him; he was right there," Carson says. And Carson can�t imagine how the woman could think there hadn�t been a problem. "I was out there in the middle of the street, yelling at the top of my lungs," she says. Besides, Carson says, "She had other kids in the car, so it wasn�t like she was oblivious to the needs of kids.�� Another driver tried immediately to track down the driver but lost her. Police and Carson are still looking for her. "I�m determined that one way or another this woman is going to be caught," she says. And Carson is redoubling her efforts to get guards � paid school district employees if necessary � out at the intersection every day. Washington Principal Stephanie Johnson is sympathetic, and so is schools Superintendent Steve Wisely. "There are places that are extremely dangerous for kids," says Johnson. She has joined Carson in the request for a paid guard, which Wisely is asking his staff to review. A similar request was turned down last year because traffic was considered to be too light to justify the position. Medford schools use students at crossings where the students can remain in constant sight of adults, and where traffic is light. On heavily traveled roads, the district pays adults to watch the walkways. "But there�s not enough money to put paid crossing guards everywhere," says Wisely. So far, the district has stationed adult guards at streets like Delta Waters Road, not the quieter streets like Hamilton. "But obviously," Wisely says, "we�re going to take another look at it." District officials probably will hear from Carson on the matter as well. "I�m not going to let up on them," she says. "They need to do something." Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.