Two children hit by car outside school
By Kenneth Fine
Published in News on November 18, 2005 1:53 PM
By KENNETH FINE
News-Argus Staff Writer
Two students were injured when they were struck by a vehicle on their way to Greenwood Middle School this morning.
Police and school officials would not release the names of the two students, both boys, nor the driver of the white Ford Explorer that hit them.
The students were taken to Wayne Memorial Hospital and then transferred to Pitt Memorial Hospital. No information on their conditions was available at press time.
The accident happened about 7:30 a.m. at the crosswalk between Greenwood and Meadow Lane Elementary School on Ash Street.
Police, firefighters and emergency personnel were quickly on the scene and blocked off the intersection.
As a witness gave his account of what happened, one of the boys was placed onto a stretcher and lifted into the back of an ambulance.
The witness said he saw three boys waiting at the crosswalk. When the light turned red and they saw the blinking walk sign, they looked both ways and began to cross. The vehicle was traveling east.
"The light had been red for a few seconds," he said. "The boys started to cross and I saw a white Ford Explorer coming at them, and it wasn't slowing down."
"I thought he'd stop and looked down for a minute," he said. "When I looked up, I saw one of the boys get hit and he was flipped up in the air."
The other boy was hit and thrown sideways into a red mini-van, the man said. According to a preliminary police report, the driver ran the red light at the crosswalk.
The SUV did not slow down before it struck the students, the witness said.
School officials said both of the students are eighth-graders at Greenwood. Counselors were helping their classmates cope with the incident, the officials said.
As the ambulance pulled away, a woman was near the scene, crying.
"I can't believe he was driving that fast," she said.
Goldsboro Police Chief Tim Bell said that charges likely will be filed against the driver today and that additional charges may be filed later.