Fort Worth pledges road changes after car strikes girl walking home from school
Officials have pledged to revamp traffic infrastructure along a stretch of road in far north Fort Worth after a vehicle struck a young girl late Monday afternoon.
The car crashed into the 8-year-old child at the intersection of Park Vista Boulevard and Glen Canyon Road as she walked home from Park Glen Elementary School at 4:37pm, according to the Fort Worth Police Department’s accident report and a message from the school principal shared online.
Police said the girl was transported to hospital after the collision. The accident report, published days later, categorized her injuries as “incapacitating.”
An update from principal Nathan Roub sent to Park Glen families at 7:53 a.m. Tuesday said the girl was “stable and currently in the ICU.” Roub added that the girl suffered “a couple small” fractures and is nursing a “very severe” concussion.
The vehicle, with a 1-year-old child in the backseat, was going southbound along Park Vista Boulevard in the inside lane when it collided with the girl, according to police. The police report didn’t specify how fast the car was traveling at the time of the crash or whether nearby traffic signals had been illuminated.
Officials cited both the driver’s failure to yield right of way to a pedestrian and the girl’s failure to yield right of way to a vehicle as possible contributing factors. Police arrived on the scene at 6 p.m., 54 minutes after being notified of the incident, the report noted.
District 4 Councilman Charles Lauersdorf wrote in a Facebook post Monday night that he had already spoken with the director of Transportation and Public Works about placing a traffic signal on the street.
“I will not stop until we have a light there. It is the only way to slow down the traffic from Basswood to Tarrant Parkway and vice versa,” he wrote.
Residents living around the school have long complained about cars blazing through Park Vista Boulevard during rush hour. A pole just before the site of the collision flashes yellow during pick-up and drop-off times, demanding drivers reduce their max speed to 20 miles per hour. The only other prominent signage urging motorists to slow as they approach Glen Canyon are house-shaped signs with silhouettes of an adult guiding a young person across the street. Crossing pedestrians can illuminate them to signal to oncoming cars; residents say drivers rarely heed the warning.
Traffic guards tasked with regulating traffic at the intersection during pick-up and drop-off hours (typically 2pm-4pm during school days) had disbanded by the time the girl walked home.
This story was originally published February 27, 2024 at 9:20 AM.
