From the Springfield News-Leader this morning:
A 14-year-old boy on a bicycle was struck and killed by a pickup truck Tuesday night at the intersection of Clifton Avenue and High Street in northwest Springfield.
Springfield Police Lt. Kevin Grizzell said the accident occurred about 7:30 p.m.
According to Grizzell, a Toyota Tundra pickup was eastbound on High Street and came to a stop at the intersection.
The intersection, in a residential area, is a four-way stop.
“He then pulls forward and struck a 14-year-old boy on a bicycle who rode into his path,” Grizzell said.
“A witness in a vehicle at the north side of the intersection saw the pickup stop and saw the boy ride into its path.”
UPDATE: A News-Leader update adds these details:
According to witnesses, the driver of a Toyota pickup was eastbound on High at the four-way stop intersection of Clifton and High. The pickup started across the intersection after stopping for the stop sign. Young was northbound on the sidewalk riding a bicycle. Young failed to stop at the intersection, according to witnesses. When he entered the intersection on the bicycle, a collision occurred between the bicyclist and pickup. Young was not wearing a helmet at the time of the crash.
The lack of helmet may or may not have had anything to do with the extent of this boy’s fatal injuries. Until that is known, it is an extraneous detail that suggests more meaning than it really means.
UPDATE: The News-Leader profiles Zhamar Malik Young-Scott.
Comments 10
This is so so sad-
I have to wonder-if the guy stopped at the intersection- did the bike have the right of way and begin to proceed once the pickup stopped? I often wait until I’m “sure” that the driver is going to stop before proceeding. Also, if he was fully stopped, how did he get going fast enough to kill the kid (or not be able to avoid hitting him) in the space of the intersection?
What a tragedy
Posted 30 Dec 2009 at 9:00 am ¶so, the pick up drove into the boy’s path, with the boy in it, thereby effectively killing the boy and changing radio stations at the same time. how convenient.
Posted 30 Dec 2009 at 9:50 am ¶Lots of unanswered questions. Chances are we won’t get answers. The News-Leader is so short-handed that they may choose not to follow this. I’m not in a position to get much information while I’m in Florida. But I’ll keep an eye on it as best I can.
Posted 30 Dec 2009 at 11:04 am ¶Four way stop. Driver heading east. The only streetlight is on the NW corner (drivers left). Sidewalk crossing on the opposite side of the intersection from the driver. If the kid was coming from the south on the sidewalk, he would have been coming past an empty unlit parking lot to the intersection. My guess is that he was on the sidewalk coming from the dark side and pulled into the path of the truck. Do a google maps search for Clifton and High in Springfield. It looks wide open in the Streetview, but this tragedy occurred at 7:30 last night. By that time, it was dark and the weather was starting to set in with lots of gray and a little mist falling. Don’t be too quick to blame the driver for this one….the witness said the kid pulled in front, and if he was on the sidewalk there would have been enough room to acceleration distance to knock the rider down and run over him.
Posted 30 Dec 2009 at 12:04 pm ¶7:30pm at this time of year, that’s well after sunset. It’s plain dark. Wonder what kind of illumination the 14 year old had on? Sad on all counts and for everyone involved.
Posted 30 Dec 2009 at 12:09 pm ¶I would imagine he was on the sidewalk. Not that I’m blaming the kid in this situation but in these types of crashes, at least in Columbia, the bicyclist is almost always on the sidewalk and enters the crosswalk at bicycling speed where its nearly impossible for anyone to see and/or yield to them.
Posted 30 Dec 2009 at 12:24 pm ¶Four way stop. Single streetlight on the NW corner (driver’s left). Chain link fence obscuring the view of the cross street to the south (driver’s right). Sidewalk crosses the street across the intersection from where the truck would have stopped. If the cyclist was coming from the south, he was against a backdrop of an unlit industrial parking lot. If he was coming from the north, he was coming out from behind both the streetlight and the car on the north. Full on dark, with rain/snow setting in. Don’t be so quick to blame the driver on this one. My guess is that the kid came off that sidewalk in front of the truck. You can pull that intersection up on Google Streetview, and it looks fairly wide open, but factor in the weather and probable improper cycling technique on the part of the kid as well as the witness account and I’m guessing that kid was almost impossible to see regardless of the direction he was coming from.
Posted 30 Dec 2009 at 12:35 pm ¶Tracy… Thanks for the detail. And I’m sorry your comment was tagged as spam. I don’t know why.
Posted 01 Jan 2010 at 7:10 am ¶I can hear his father telling him when he first started riding his bicycle, “stay on the sidewalk so you dont get hit by a car.”
Posted 01 Jan 2010 at 12:11 pm ¶Regardless of who is at fault here–not enough evidence from this snippet–the report shows a clear bias by saying that the boy rode into the path of the truck.
And I always wonder when someone has come to a complete stop how hard he has to gun his engine to hit someone hard enough to kill.
Posted 28 Jan 2010 at 8:04 pm ¶