Girl, 11, killed in crash outside Glendale middle school

[wtmusic]

"The woman in the sport utility vehicle looked one way. The child looked another. In an instant, a school crosswalk became a scene of horror.

A day after a Glendale sixth-grader was struck and killed in front of her mother and classmates, school officials, parents and students struggled to make sense of the tragedy Thursday."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-glendale31-2008oct31,0,2516788.story

Sometimes we need to remind ourselves to slow down.

[Catherine Vincent]

1. Tell me about it.

People are in such a hurry. Just this morning on my way to work, I pulled out of my subdivision onto a street where the speed limit is 40. As I was going about 35 (which is fast enough imo), here comes this big SUV barreling past me going about 55. There are a lot of school buses that use this street and there are pedestrians that use it's sidewalk a lot. I just wonder why this person was in such a hurry like that.

[malaise]

2. Sorry you cannot be in a hurry approaching a school crossing

There are laws. I hope she's charged for manslaughter. Very sad indeed.

[Blue Diadem]

3. That's so sad.

We had one recently in our area too. A boy about that age, dropped off by his Mom at the bus stop, was running along side it to catch the already moving bus and slipped and fell underneath it.

So many people in a rush, so many running late, so many distractions. It's sad. :(

[renate]

6. what a nightmare

I feel sick to my stomach thinking about that and about the girl who died. :cry:

So incredibly sad.

The bus driver in your area and the mom in the news article must both be utterly devastated as well. The article says the woman was going 10 miles an hour--on the face of it, it doesn't sound like she was going too fast, she just didn't look in the right place at the right time. I've had a close call like that myself, when a kid ran out of nowhere to cross the street as I was getting ready to make a right turn. I looked to my left for oncoming cars, started to turn, and just barely stopped in time when I saw the kid coming from the right. :scared:

It's so scary to think about how suddenly something like this could happen, and how absolutely tragic the results of a tiny slip or a moment's carelessness could be. And how especially awful that in both of these cases, the child's mother saw it happen. :cry:

[wtmusic]

8. I don't usually post stuff like this

but this one really hit home - my kids are 12 and 14 and we live in an adjacent community. The schools in both communities are similar - they are in the middle of residential areas with no dropoff zones. Before and after school kids and cars are everywhere.

"how absolutely tragic the results of a tiny slip or a moment's carelessness could be". How very true, and appropriate for driving on Halloween as well.

[kath]

4. I wonder if the SUV driver was talking on a cell phone.

[DemoTex]

5. My mother had a 5th grade student killed in front of the school in 1958.

School had let out for the day and the little girl lived close enough to walk home. Before she was off the school grounds she darted out in front of a car. This was a rural school on a fairly busy 2-lane road with none of the modern-day safety precautions. My mother was still in her classroom when the child was struck, but she ran out and helped the school principal administer first-aid .. to no avail.

My mother called the child's death the crossroads of her teaching career. I did not go to the same school, but I was shaken for a long time by those events.

[ecstatic]

7. ESPECIALLY when driving around someone who has slowed or come to a stop

It's not worth it people!

[cobalt1999]

9. I have two young daughters, I can't read these stories.

I really can't imagine what the parents are going through.