Perhaps a crossing guard is needed!?

I don't think anyone pays attention to the speed zone by the school. Do they know what 25 miles per hr is? Do they watch for children crossing?

Prayers to Sweet Nick .. and his family! Youare Healed by Jesus' Stipes Nick .. You can make it..you are whole In Jesus name! :)) Amen! xoxo

OMG in Heaven! Who is the precious little one who was hit? My son is 12 years old in 6th @ Heineman and plays many sports through Huntley. We also go to St. Mary and I teach CCD / R.E. I just now saw this...I see above a first name, NICK. Nick who?

Why place a crossing guard in danger? The school provides a bus service for ALL students. That crossing right there is so damn dangerous with dozens of cars, trucks, buses (most that speed), all trying to get in and out of the school entrance, or even just to turn on Haligus. Stop placing your child in danger and have them either ride the bus or drive them to school. Just the same, healing prayers to Nick and his family.

They used to have a crossing guard, but they would have lost state funding for buses to all the neighborhoods adjacent to the school if they kept the crossing guard. My daughter told me that the school has had daily announcements discouraging kids from walking to school.

What a sad thing to happen. I don't know Nick, but hope he gets well soon. That whole area has needed to br reconfigured for traffic flow in/out of the school for quite a few years now. Because yes, kids should be able to walk to school without worry. A crossing guard would be ideal. but even if they could put up a 4-way stop sign, even if only during school hours, I think it could also help out immensely!

At the very least, place a crossing light at the intersection that flashes when kids press the button and need to cross.

Forget a crossing guard! This is a dangerous intersection! People will probably complain because it will slow down traffic but this needs to be a 4-way stop. I saw this this morning, I drive my child everyday and I constantly see people not waiting for the stop sign coming out of the subdivision because they are impatient and not giving the people on Haligus the right of way. I have seen numerous near misses of hitting children by people speeding thru dangerously in front of children to not have to wait for kids going across in the crosswalk. can you imagine getting that call this a.m. about your child:(My prayers go out to the family,

Mary Jo you took the words out of my mouth. I am praying for Nick and his family. God bless!

Our prayers go out to this student and his family. We MUST slow down. A 4-way stop sign may do that!

The district offers the luxury of free bus service to all kids and the school repeatedly asks the kids to use it. If a parent lets a young child forego the transportation and walk alone to school, then they better make sure he has a safe passage. Same goes if their child is walking to the library, park, etc. This is not a crossing guard issue, this is parental responsibility. It's about time we stop blaming everyone else and take responsibility for the decisions we make for our kids. What if it were 6pm when this child was hit? Are you going to want a 24 hour crossing guard or is it now appropriate to hold the parents accountable for a 12 year old's whereabouts? Be a parent and learn to say "NO". Prayers for Nick and for his parents that they will be able to move on from what could have been the worst decision of their lives.

Why blame the child, his parents, the school, the police or the city? Place the responsibility with the driver who was licensed to operate a vehicle safely. An adult with a dangerous machine MUST take special caution where children may be present.

Carol and Mary B- you two are part of the problem because you must not pay attention either. A school speed zone is 20mph, not 25. The school speed zone was enacted there over a year ago. There are several warning signs including "speed zone ends" signs.

It is absolutely sickening to me that any of you would blame the parent!!! Come one, kids should be able to walk to school especially when they live that close!! Grow up and realize like Ron said the person who is operating the vehicle should PAY ATTENTION, ESPECIALLY when children are present by a school zone!! I work with the mother of Nick and she is an AMAZING SINGLE MOTHER OF 3!!! She does all that she can do to help her children and I couldn't praise her enough!! She is an amazing roll model for her 3 children and her children are wonderful respectful children!! We are all praying for Nick to have a fast recovery, and it breaks my heart that this happened to him!!! I am at a lost for words that ANYONE would blame the parents!!! SLOW DOWN AND PAY ATTENTION, or maybe that person shouldn't drive anymore!! And whoever it was that hit Nick, I am sure they are baffled at what happened but they need to stop and think WHY they were in SO MUCH OF A HURRY that they ended up hitting a child!! LIFE IS WAY TO SHORT SLOW DOWN!!!!!

Let me get this straight, everybody knows this is a "dangerous" intersection. The kids who cross there have bus service available, yet their parents allow them to walk?

I think the blame is on the driver first for probably not going the speed limit. Possibly texting while driving and obviously not paying attention. You need to be extra careful especially when driving through a school zone during school time. Crossing guards should be mandatory at all schools no matter what. I don't care how much or how little money the school or state has. I'll do it for free voluntarily if it means preventing something like this. For all of you other people just know that their are two sides to every story and don't be so quick to pass judgement especially on the parents. The whole thing is just very sad and breaks my heart and my prayers go out to the family.

It is completely irresponsible, not to mention borderline libelous, to accuse the driver of speeding and possibly texting. Do you have ANY evidence to back this up??? The fact that the police did not issue her a ticket certainly speaks to her innocence in this situation. According to follow-up reports, a driver turning left into the school motioned the boy to cross and he did. Neither of them were aware that there was a car in the right hand land travelling forward through the intersection. The boy should have looked before stepping into the street. I am not blaming him, he was waved forward and assumed it was safe. It was a tragic accident and that is all.

More importantly...parents need to take note of this and NOT LET CHILDREN WALK TO SCHOOL. I get that some want to, it would be nice if they could, but clearly it is not safe. We have buses, those buses have an excellent safety record, there is no reason to take risks.

I feel horrible for this child. I'm sure the driver of the vehicle is beside herself. As Tracey points out, the fact that the driver was not cited indicates they did nothing reckless to trigger this accident. Neither did anyone else including the child (ACCIDENT). It’s our natural tendency to assign blame; if it isn’t obvious we make foolish assumptions. As for the comments about being more careful, of course people should be more careful but that does not always prevent a tragedy. Ms. Amy Allen, if I were to go to the public records and look up your traffic history and those of your family would I find a spotless record? Any violation could have the potential for an accident it just takes a series of events to make it happen. I see people crossing the street on a regular basis jumping into the crosswalk as soon as the sign says "Walk". Signs and crossing guards do not replace the basic need for everyone to be aware of their surroundings (drivers, children, runners, etc) in order to create the safest environment possible to avoid as many tragedies as we can. Anyone else notice adult runners wearing pure black clothing at night? A crossing guard would help reduce the chance of another accident; so would stop signs and blinking lights. I’m all for it but let’s pound into our children’s minds that they will not make a move without awareness of their surroundings at all times. It will help prevent all sorts of tragedies we hear about in the news today.

The driver deserves the death penalty

Bob u deserve the death penalty for your comment and being a complete idiot!

Sam, Please explain further how my suggestions are pushy? It's a pretty basic idea. Its not sound advice? Help me out I'm trying to understand how my comments contradict each others like yours do. Bob, you are a circus clown on this earth for our entertainment. Thank you.

Nikki I'm sorry this happened to you, the boy, his family and all who witnessed this horrible accident. So glad he is doing okay. From what I heard the officer said you did nothing wrong and ther was no way you could have reacted quick enough given how close you were to the boy when he entered the intersection.

I can only imagine how traumatic this event was for the driver, the boy and the other individuals who were present at the time of the accident. My heart races just thinking about it. I was not there, I have not seen video and have seen no pictures. Because of this, I do not feel I can pass judgement on those involved. From reading some of the comments, it appears that this intersection is known to be quite dangerous and thankfully the outcome of this accident was not more severe. As the police did not issue any tickets, it leads me to believe that there was indeed nothing the driver could have done to prevent the accident. Very sadly, there are times that the best of drivers are put in a situation where they are unable to avoid an accident. It sounds as though perhaps there was a chain of events (another driver waving the boy across, the boy not fully looking before crossing, etc) which contributed to the accident. Again, I think the most important thing is to remember that the boy was not seriously injured and rather than lashing out at the driver and other involved without knowing the details of the situation, perhaps it is time to more closely look at the environment in which the accident occurred and work to change things so that something like this hopefully has a far lower probability of happening again.

Ok so first of All Patrick, why my driving record is even mentioned is beyond me!! I know, I too have made mistakes, but the whole point of my comment was to NOT put blame on the parent who let their 12yr old son walk to school!!! Not to mention the buses wont let you ride if you are within a mile of school in which Nick is!! So what is your solution there? The point is that there needs to be a solution within this intersection because Nick is not the first child to be struck!! Its pretty sad that the township wont help a bad situation like this!! And Nikki, like I said in my post I am sure you are baffled at what happened and will probably never get it out of your mind, but for you to say that Nick is totally okay and nothing is broken, is completely wrong!!! He is at home bed ridden with a fractured skull and pelvic bone!! Yes he will be okay and is getting better, but he is not totally fine!! It is pointless to sit here and argue with all of you people who obviously all have different opinions!! But like I have already said, Nick's mom is an amazing single mother who I have worked with for 7 years and cant praise her enough for all that she has went through over the years and always makes sure her children come first!! She would never put her children in danger and by letting him walk to school doesnt make her a bad parent!! You people need to wake up and realize that EVERYONE needs to pay way more attention while driving and I will say the same for myself!!

Nikki, I totally understand you were given some incorrect information, and yes Nick will recover but its going to be a long road!! I also totally understand that it was an accident on both parts, and like Clifford said it will never be forgotten that is for sure!! I was more upset that people started coming on here and blaming his mom for letting him walk to school!! Its sad now a days that we as parents cant let our children walk to school because of things like this or other things like kidnapping!! Its frustrating to me to come on here and see people blame his mother when in my beliefs did nothing wrong!! People are quick to jump at one another!! I will admit in my first original post I was a little testy, but it was because of all the rude comments towards his mom!! So I will apologize if I offended you in anyway, because I know you are probably beating yourself up with "What ifs" already!! I just hope that with what did happen that some actions will be taken in this intersection to help in the future!! Life happens sometimes and what if the child misses his bus and has to walk.. Something needs to change that is for sure!! On another page with an article of this incident, someone said they were going to bring up at the next town meeting to see who would be interested in donating their time to be a crossing guard in this intersection to try and make it safer!! So I hope something happens soon!!

There is no way Nicole couldn't have seen Nick at the crosswalk. There are no obstructions blocking the view. Apparently she wasn't paying attention. And there are 4 bright neon yellow signs alerting drivers, 2 of which alert there is a pedestrian crosswalk and 2 that alert it's a school zone and the speed limit is 20mph. If she was doing 20mph she would have been able to stop in time.

Julie, the driver apparently was not paying attention. There are 4 warning signs prior to the marked crosswalk. Had she obeyed them and reduced her speed to 20 as it is a school zone she would havebeen able to stop. How dare you blame the child. From what you described you aren't a responsible driver yourself. And I wouldn't want to be anywhere near you on the road.

So you saw the the car hit the child Julie? Or are you just trying to make it seem that way?