A 15-year-old Oxford girl sustained minor injuries Monday night after being struck by a vehicle while crossing M-24.
The accident occurred around 7:38 p.m. while the victim and her sister were crossing M-24 from the southeast corner to the southwest corner of the Burdick intersection.
While crossing the southbound lanes of M-24, the 15-year-old was struck by an oncoming 1998 Oldsmobile Silhouette driven by a 47-year-old Oxford woman, according to the Oxford Village Police report.
The victim was taken to POH Medical Center in Pontiac complaining of head and leg pain. Her sister was not injured.
No citations were issued to either of the parties and the driver was found not to be responsible for the accident at this time.
Police Chief Mike Neymanowski actually witnessed the incident. According to his written statement, the girls were in the middle of the road, ‘just outside of the crosswalk? to the south and did not have the right of way.
‘These girls were definitely crossing against the ‘don’t walk? signal (for pedestrians),? the chief said.
Another witness told police the girls were in the crosswalk, but didn’t have the right of way. He stated that he noticed the crosswalk signal indicated the ‘do not cross? symbol while they were crossing.
Both the victim and her sister told police they were in the crosswalk, the traffic light was red for north and southbound M-24 and the crosswalk signal displayed the white symbol indicating it’s okay to cross.
However, the sister stated that traffic started moving while they were in the middle of the crosswalk, so they moved out of the crosswalk into the street to avoid a black truck and that’s when the victim was struck by the oncoming minivan.
Following the accident, Neymanowski went out and timed the crosswalk signal. He determined it’s approximately 41 seconds from the time the ‘start crossing? signal appears to the time southbound M-24 traffic is cleared to go by the green light.
The driver told police she had been stopped at the red light. When it turned green, she proceeded south with the rest of the traffic. She got past Burdick when she saw, out of the corner of her eye, someone attempting to cross the road and that’s when she hit the girl.
The driver also told police the girls were not in the crosswalk, but just south of it, ‘a few doors down.?