One day after a woman was fatally struck and her 6-year-old daughter was critically injured while walking near Hancock Park Elementary School, a student at Berendo Middle School near downtown Los Angeles was hit by a vehicle Wednesday, district officials said.
Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho told the Los Angeles City Council a 14-year-old student was hit near the Berendo campus on 12th Street west of Vermont Avenue. District officials and police had no immediate information on the circumstances of the crash or the condition of the student.
“We need immediate staffing of crossing guards, more enforcement around schools specific to speed limits and legislation to provide additional safety precautions and measures to ensure safe passages to schools,” Carvalho said in a statement. “We wish our student a speedy recovery, and extra support will be provided to the school community.”
Around 8 a.m. Tuesday, a woman in her 30s was fatally struck while walking with a girl believed to be her daughter in a crosswalk in the 6200 block of West Colgate Avenue in the mid-Wilshire area. Police said they were struck by a southbound pickup, which then continued south and crashed into an apartment building.
Authorities have not released the name of the woman, who died at the scene of the crash. There were also no immediate updates on the girl, who was taken to a hospital in critical condition.
Police said the critically injured girl is a first-grader at Hancock Park Elementary.
The motorist who struck them, a man about 30, was taken to a hospital, where he was listed in stable condition, the LAPD reported. He was detained at the hospital pending further investigation. His name was not released.
On Wednesday afternoon, an LAPD spokesperson told City News Service that the case remained under investigation and no other details were being released.
On Tuesday morning, LAPD Chief Michel Moore told the city Police Commission there were “early signs that the man was impaired.”
“That is a contributing factor to this horrific collision that resulted in the loss of this mother, and the critical injuries to this young child,” Moore said.
Police said speed was also believed to have contributed to the crash. Investigators have been interviewing witnesses and searching for any possible video that may have captured the crash.
Los Angeles City Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky, who represents the area where Tuesday’s crash occurred, wrote on her Twitter page that there are “no words to convey how horrifying this act of traffic violence is.”
“Like tens of thousands of other parents in Los Angeles, I also walked my child to school today,” she said. “It can be a terrifying experience, knowing that distracted drivers are traveling far above speed limits just feet from where our children walk.”
Yaroslavsky said she will be supporting a motion before the council’s Transportation Committee on Wednesday calling for the installation of speed humps around every elementary school in the city.
“We need to address street safety in Los Angeles as the crisis that it is,” she wrote. “That starts with ensuring that Hancock Park Elementary has a crossing guard at the intersection where the accident occurred.”
Police reminded motorists “that if they become involved in a collision, they should pull over and stop as soon as it is safe to do so, notify emergency services, and remain at the scene to identify themselves.”