BY COLBY FRAZIER
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER
A nine-year-old girl was struck by a mini van driven by her 15-year-old brother last Thursday in a parking lot on the 400 block of Bath Street, according to Santa Barbara Police, who say the girl suffered from several broken vertebra and was flown to a hospital in Los Angeles in stable condition.
Lt. Paul McCaffrey, a spokesman for the police department, said the 15-year-old was maneuvering the vehicle through a private parking lot when the girl approached the vehicle to inform her brother he was getting too close to a tree.
McCaffrey said investigators believe the boy then hit the gas instead of the brake and pinned the girl between the mini van and the tree, which crushed a number of her vertebra.
McCaffrey said the girl was initially treated at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital and was in stable condition before being transported to Los Angeles.
He said the last report given to police indicated that the girl had no feeling from her chest down, but doctors were hopeful that the girl could recover due to her young age.
McCaffrey said the 15-year-old was not breaking the law because operating a motor vehicle underage on private property is legal.
This accident joins a growing list of vehicle versus pedestrian incidents over the past week.
Ilan Ashkenazi, the 14-year-old boy struck in a crosswalk at the intersection of Carrillo and State Streets on Sept. 30, remains in Cottage Hospital’s Intensive Care Unit in Critical condition with a severe head injury. The boy’s mother, Estelle, 54, was recently released from the hospital despite suffering serious head and internal injuries in the same accident.
On Friday night, 23-year-old Anne Napier was hit and killed while walking along the 300 block of Cliff Drive.
Police say Napier was struck in the roadway by 59-year-old Robert Ernest Anderson, who was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol.
McCaffrey said investigators are not sure why Napier was in the road, but suspect alcohol could have contributed. He said Napier, her 23-year-old male friend David Weber and Anderson were all at the Brew House on Montecito Street before the accident occurred.
McCaffrey said charges have not yet been filed against Anderson, but noted that in order to be charged with felony DUI, one would not only have to be drunk, but would have to have committed a traffic violation, which in this case has not yet been determined.
“In this case we don’t know why it happened, but she was out in the road,” McCaffrey said. “Alcohol may very well have played a role in her actions.
“If you drink don’t drive. Depending on how much you’ve been drinking maybe you shouldn’t be walking either.”
McCaffrey said Napier’s toxicology results have not yet been released.
Last Thursday, a bicyclist was hit in the crosswalk at State Street and Calle Palo Colorado. On October 1, a 23-year-old Santa Barbara City College student was hit on her bike at Chapala and Los Olivos Streets.
“We’ve had three pretty big callouts this week so we’ve been having some serious pedestrian involved collisions,” said Mark Hunt, a traffic investigator for the Police Department. “We’ve been very busy here in the traffic department.”
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Police investigate spate of accidents
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3 comments:
Are you kidding me? First of all, the police officer shouldn't have said that "depending on how much you have had, maybe you shouldn't be walking either." She should be commended for not driving in the first place!! Secondly, as a reporter, you must know that friends and family are going to read this and it is completely insensitive to write it. You shouldn't write everything someone says, especially when it is as ridiculous as making light of someone who was responsible and didn't drive but who was killed by a drunk driver. Did you ever stop to think that maybe she was trying to catch a cab and didn't see the car? I just hope that the family didn't read this.
First of all, my heart goes out to the family of the girl. Very tragic accident. With that said, their are alot of people who want to crucify this man for drunk driving when alcohol may not have even been a factor in her death. From the information that's been given to the publiic, She stepped into oncoming traffic and got hit. The man was drinking so he should and will get in trouble for that. If your drunk enough to walk into the path of an oncoming vehicle than yes... you are too drunk to be walking home... period. I don't know for a fact that this is what happenned, hopefully the truth will come out soon, but if it is what happenned, the officer had every right to say what he said.
Hi , I was a friend of Annie’s as well as the boyfriend of her best friend. She was an incredible person .I just feel I do need to mention something that has been continuously overlooked , in every single report and article on Annie’s death. Annie took a cab that night with full intent of taking that cab home and not walking. Yes she was drinking previously at a restaurant/bar on Montecito street, and as toxicology reports show ,was well over the legal limit , but I know Annie , she had a high tolerance and she was a tall girl almost 6-0 feet tall, and most importantly she wasn’t driving . Witness’s including her current roommate spoke with her minutes before and saw her getting into a cab right in front of the Brew House, they (vaguely remember it being yellow in color)
. Annie made a conscious decision to be safe and take a cab home . They boy she was with (David) said Annie asked the cab driver to stop at 7 Eleven for a minute, where she wanted to pick up some snacks before going home in the cab . They asked the cab to wait , where he left the meter running but for unknown reasons , greediness in want of better fare ,or no patience, we will never know ,the cab left them there. Annie was a great tipper when it came to cab fares, but I guess that driver couldn’t wait to find that out! This is why they started walking home, stopping periodically along the way to waive taxis’ down. ,.I know there is no legal responsibility with the cab driver or cab company but I feel there should be a moral one. People take cabs in order to get home safe and not worry about walking up busy streets or driving drunk; and in this case it cost a beautiful life. As well we will never know that seconds before her death when Annie was trying to hail what she thought was another cab across the road and carelessly stepped off that dangerous curb and into the street , if because that driver was impaired he couldn’t swerve to miss her. We will never know. Thanks for listening .
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