CINCINNATI — A driver ran a red light and hit a mother and her 8-year-old son in a crosswalk as they were walking to school Tuesday morning in East Price Hill, according to Lt. Steve Saunders.
The driver hit the pedestrians before 8 a.m. at Glenway and Considine Avenues as they were walking to Rees E. Price Academy, Saunders said.
First responders transported the woman to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center with a leg injury; the boy was taken to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center as a precaution.
The driver stayed on scene, and “preliminary information indicates to the driver disregarded a red light due to the sun glare,” Saunders said.
The 8-year-old is the seventh Cincinnati Public Schools student hit by a driver this school year, according to spokeswoman Lauren Worley. Worley said the district is not required to track data on crashes involving students, but officials started keeping them in a spreadsheet in 2018.
.@IamCPS is compiling some data for us re: drivers striking students who are walking to school, but in the meantime... Roughly 50 people < 18yo have been involved in crashes while walking Cincinnati streets in 2019. @WCPO
— Pat LaFleur (@pat_laFleur) September 24, 2019
A similar crash happened about three miles away on Aug. 29; a driver hit a 14-year-old Western Hills University High School student near the 5100 block of Glenway Avenue. She was also in a crosswalk.
Thirteen Cincinnati Public Schools students were hit by drivers as they walked to or from school between May and December 2018. A heavy concentration of those crashes occurred in West Side communities.
Tuesday's crash happened a day after the Cincinnati Public Schools Board of Education unanimously voted to join “Vision Zero,” a nationwide pedestrian-safety initiative. Its stated goal is to “eliminate all traffic fatalities and severe injuries” — both of which CPS students have experienced on their walks to school.
WCPO will update this story.
