A female Senior sustained severe injuries on Sunday night after a car struck her in a hit-and-run accident as she crossed Main Street.
The student was walking across the crosswalk at the Memorial Bell Tower, which does not have a stoplight, on her way back to her dorm, Adams Hall, around 8:30 p.m. The driver who hit the student remains unknown.
The student’s are serious but not life-threatening, according to an e-mail sent to the Andover community by Paul Murphy, Dean of Students. She is currently in care at Children’s Hospital Boston.
According to Murphy, she is recovering well.
After being hit, the student was able to move herself to the side of the road, when another driver traveling on Main Street saw the student and pulled over to help, according to Murphy’s e-mail.
Three Andover students, Kayla Maloney ’13, Jackie Murray ’13 and Madeline Silva ’13, came upon the scene as they were making their way back to the Quads. According to Murray, another man besides the driver was on the phone calling 911. The students also called Phillips Academy Public Safety (PAPS), and Murray ran to Adams Hall for help.
She returned with Megan Paulson, House Counselor in Adams and Instructor in History, around the time PAPS arrived.
An ambulance arrived and took the student to Lawrence General Hospital, according to Tom Conlon, Director of PAPS. The student was then transferred to Children’s Hospital late Sunday night.
Murray said, “I didn’t think at first that it was hit-and-run. I originally thought that the woman who pulled over was the one who hit her, but then [the driver] said to us that she hadn’t seen that accident but had seen [the student] on the side of the road.”
“There have been a couple of car accidents where the student is doing nothing wrong at all and even in this case, we don’t actually know what happened because no one saw the accident. It’s a very tough place interacting between cars and kids, and again the best thing we can do is have extreme caution all the time,” said Murphy.
This is the second incident of a student pedestrian being hit by a car at this crosswalk this year.
In October, Joe Faller ’14 was hit by a car skidding through the crosswalk. Upon impact, he was pushed onto his back but did not sustain any injuries, because his backpack broke his fall. Faller was taken to the hospital as a precautionary measure.
Conlon said “[Faller] hit the pavement but he wasn’t hurt at all, and the driver stopped. This [accident] here, nobody stopped. It was a hit-and-run, as far as police are concerned.”
Both accidents occurred on rainy nights with poor visibility, according to Conlon.
Two weeks ago, a student caused a crash when cars had to brake suddenly to allow the student to cross Main Street. Although the student was unharmed, one the drivers was taken to a hospital.
PAPS and Murphy urge students to use extreme caution when crossing streets, and in particular when crossing Main Street, which is a state highway.
Murphy said, “We can’t control how people drive. The only thing we can control is how we get across the street. It’s become safer over the last 25 years that I’ve been here, but it’s still putting cars and kids close to each other so I think it’s incumbent upon pedestrians to pay attention.”
Conlon said, “Don’t take for granted that when you step out [into traffic] that people will stop for you, because they don’t always.”
He continued, “My suggestion is to remember… to make sure before you step out in that crosswalk that you look and you make sure that the car is stopping. You have to make sure you make eye contact with whoever is driving so they’ll stop. Just make sure to look out for your own safety.”
Overall, Murphy believes students have always done a good job of keeping safe.
“When we think about the thousands of crossings we have a day between Salem Street and Main Street… the numbers are very safe in terms of how often [accidents] happens, but [they do] happen, and people just have to be cautious,” he said.
