MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A Hickory Hill child is recovering after being hit by a car before school Tuesday.
Police say it seems the child darted into traffic on Winchester Road near Ridgeway.
The driver tried to steer clear of the little girl but still hit her.
“It makes me nervous to watch them going across like that,” neighbor Rosalin Harden said.
Harden watches everything from her back porch where she’s got a clear view of each person willing to dart out into traffic, instead of walking to the crosswalk to safely get across.
She says the crosswalks aren’t convenient and that’s why people don’t use them.
“It’s a dangerous practice,” Harden said.
Police say just after 7 a.m. they got a call about two sisters who tried to cross.
The youngest got hit by a car that witnesses say tried to miss her.
A witness who wanted to remain anonymous says she was in the car behind Calvin Gray, who swerved swerved and still hit the child.
“The oldest girl stopped in the middle of the street, but the younger girl flew out. She actually tried to beat the traffic,” she said. “I’ve never seen anything like that in my life.”
Gray got a ticket for driving with a suspended license and the victim got a ticket for not using a crosswalk and was taken to the hospital.
WREG watched as numerous people chose to try and beat six lanes of cars, so we asked if they were worried about their safety.
Harden says she’s worried that children will continue to follow the lead of the adults in the area.
“They are going to do what they see grown people do. They’ll take a chance thinking they can get beat the cars, but they can’t.”
She hopes more grownups will stop rolling the dice and start leading by example.
It appears the two girls lived right across the street, so they aren’t going far.
Their parents were able to get to the scene right away.