Update: Bicycle-riding child hit by car in High Point

ORIGINAL REPORT, 3:20 PM: Police and fire are rushing right now to 32nd and Raymond in High Point. The scanner says an 8-year-old on a bicycle was hit by a car; he is reported to be conscious. More when we get there.

3:29 PM UPDATE: Co-publisher Patrick Sand is there and says he can see that the child is conscious and sitting up. Looks like he will be taken to the hospital to be checked out. They are trying to find his parent. The driver is visibly distraught and talking with police.

3:42 PM UPDATE: According to radio traffic, the child may have a broken bone. The medic unit is taking him to the hospital right now.

19 Replies to "Update: Bicycle-riding child hit by car in High Point"

  • Alki Resident November 14, 2012 (3:24 pm)

    Praying this kid wasn’t hurt too bad,uhhg.

  • EricW November 14, 2012 (3:32 pm)

    Around at 3:15 ish, a group of kind people were around the the young African American boy who was lying on the cement. 2cars are being questioned right now. No other witnesses were seen

  • EricW November 14, 2012 (3:34 pm)

    Follow up: he is now being transported and is conscious.

    • WSB November 14, 2012 (3:36 pm)

      Thanks, Eric. We had someone at the scene for a bit and have reported the same, though our crew now has to move on to something else. We’ll check with SFD later for assessment of injuries – just glad to know it does not APPEAR to be life-threatening at this point. – TR

  • jc November 14, 2012 (3:42 pm)

    We’ve lived here for about three to four years now and have seen this coming. we’ve mentioned it to neighbors and the police. They ride bikes in the middle of the road, cars fly through the neighborhood and children dart out from behind parked cars and they don’t wear helmets. it’s a shame, we have a beautiful park and side walks. perhaps people will slow down for a while and the parents will teach thier children to play on the playground and open fields we have all over the neighborhood. it’s just a shame this poor kid was hit. my wife was almost hit by a lady who was reading a book while driving. READING A BOOK!

  • trickycoolj November 14, 2012 (4:14 pm)

    Agreed with @jc above. I’ve only been in the neighborhood 7 months and if you don’t drive 10 mph it’s impossible to see all the kids on their scooters, bikes and skates. They ride very recklessly without helmets, bikes pulling scooters/skates, riding down any driveway with an incline to get speed, and parents are no where to be seen. When the ice cream man comes they fly like banshees for the truck through the middle of the streets. Anyone else notice the ice cream truck has been making it’s rounds still??

  • WSB November 14, 2012 (4:25 pm)

    To Guy – I can’t publish a comment with a name, not knowing whether it is or isn’t. I don’t expect to have a name in a story like this.

  • AN November 14, 2012 (4:30 pm)

    All the shrubbs, trees and on street parking tend to make small kids hard to see.

  • Ken November 14, 2012 (4:44 pm)

    I have lived her since before all the houses at that corner were built or remodeled. I have fixed the bikes of any of the kids in the neighborhood that had them. The price is they have to listen to me tell them about safely avoiding cars and pedestrians on a street which is used to cut through from Delridge to 35th. This has been the path of choice even for cops, fire and emergency vehicles for decades. I tried to stop the narrowing of the street in the rebuild but was told the traffic circle, the narrow street with parking on both sides and the out of control dandelion farms on either side would slow traffic.

    The corner where this happened is also the designated “West Seattle In Motion” bike route from (you guessed it)Delridge to 35th and on to Morgan junction. The concrete is not even set yet on the signs. Their is also some sort of cultural gap that compels the “relatively new to this country” to walk in the street rather than the sidewalks. Perhaps the same imperative that compels SUV drivers in the neighborhood to hold their cell phones to the side of their head and drive in the middle of the street no matter how wide.

  • Ken November 14, 2012 (4:51 pm)

    Umm the ice cream truck will make this street (32nd and Raymond ) regularly year round unless the snow is too deep. I have heard it on Christmas day and new years as regular as clockwork. In the summer you can sometimes hear 4 different “trucks” at the same time.

  • TL November 14, 2012 (5:54 pm)

    I commute by bicycle through there very often and I”m always on guard, it seems many motorists don’t know how to properly use roundabouts in that area of West Seattle and there are a lot of blind spots with vegetation and parked cars. Even on my bicycle I’m looking out for children and pets darting out.

  • NWmama November 14, 2012 (6:01 pm)

    Sounds like a real problem in the neighborhood. Is there not a large area for riding bikes ins park nearby? The developers should have anticipated this! Sure, we need to hold these absent parents accountable- but there should be some thought about accessing open space – especially in an area with so many kids. Space for physical activity should be a major priority! (And further emphasized since this is a mixed income area)

  • mary November 14, 2012 (8:02 pm)

    My thoughts are with the boy and his family tonight. Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

    I’ve lived in the neighborhood for six years. Kids do go unsupervised and run between cars and drivers do drive too fast. I don’t think it’s isolated to High Point. And, I encourage those who don’t live here to avoid making broad generalizations such as TL and NWMama – it’s not relevant and bluntly, in very poor taste.

    I have seen kids dart out between the cars into the street. When I see it, I talk to them about the dangers. They are great kids. I’m always worried someone will get hurt or killed. I applaud people like Ken who work with the kids and teach, rather than lecture.

    I am hoping the neighborhood association is taking notice and we can finally have action about how to slow the traffic (speed bumps, better signage). I’ve personally tried in the past with little traction. Maybe this incident will speed that along.

  • Wendy Hughes-Jelen November 14, 2012 (8:32 pm)

    There is plenty of paved areas that are not designated for cars for the kids to ride on, but they feel immortal. or are too young to be unsupervised and don’t know how to stay safe because they might be only 5 years old. Many of the families here are large and with 4-8+ kids in just one household, the mother can’t possibly be out supervising her kids in the ‘hood when she has babes in arms at home. It truly does take a village to raise a child and many of us in the neighborhood are constantly asking the kids to stay on the sidewalk, don’t ride where cars go, etc. If they are 10+ they might listen, but younger it kind of rolls off their backs and they go on their merry way. It has always been a problem and there is no solution for it without parental supervision, which also isn’t possible as I described above. Thus accidents do happen and I am sorry for the driver who absolutely could not have helped what happened, the children are fast moving and mobile and reckless. I can’t tell you how many times I have yelled out my car window for them to get on the sidewalk in the 5+ years I have lived on Raymond. I have tried to be nice, I have tried to use reason, and I have tried to just scare them and tell them I don’t want them to die so stay on the sidewalk. Nothing works. They do not comprehend and/or don’t care because we’re not their parent and they don’t have to listen to us. This will slow the kids down for maybe one or two weeks and then things will be right back to the way they were. Happens every time a kid gets hurt – which does happen every couple years.

  • JN November 14, 2012 (9:58 pm)

    Wow, people already jumping to blame the (8 years old!!) cyclist, huh? The problem is too many cars going too fast. 20mph should be the maximum speed in residential areas.

  • Luke November 14, 2012 (10:42 pm)

    kid was not riding bike, ran out into street without looking. There was a parked vehicle probably blocking the childs view from on coming car. Keep the child in your prayers……few broken bones.

  • cj November 15, 2012 (1:45 am)

    I keep saying too many cars on this little chunk of land almost surrounded by water. The consequential visibility problem with parking on both sides of many streets is just ripe for these kind of things to happen. Might as well dig tunnels for people to live in while the cars take over West Seattle.

  • monroe1200 November 15, 2012 (7:43 am)

    Mary – What did TL and NWMama say in their comments that make you think they are making any generalizations about this area? and nothing they stated was in poor taste. Maybe I just dont read things like you. Please help me understand your comment. Thanks!

  • Jack November 15, 2012 (9:57 am)

    So I want to echo all of the above. I am heart broken for this kid, and it is NOT his fault that their is a lack of supervision.
    I, like many of the above have come close to hitting very small kids (4 or 5 years), on bikes, no helmets, no adults around. And I know how to use a roundabout and drive very slow knowing a kid could dart out. I am just wondering if Neighborhood House could get some volunteers to help these kids out? Does anyone have some constructive ideas?

Sorry, comment time is over.