http://www.journaltimes.com/nucleus/index.php?itemid=1298
06: 3-YEAR-OLD HIT BY SUV; DRIVER SOUGHT
By Robert Gutsche Jr
RACINE - Eric Smith, 22, was sitting on the sidewalk with his
girlfriend when her 3-year-old son ran across the street to
his waiting grandmother and was hit by a speeding sport
utility vehicle Wednesday night.
The vehicle sped away, heading north from the 1400 block of
Marquette Street, where the crash happened around 9:05 p.m.
The child was taken to the hospital, leaving his family and
friends in shock.
"It just ran him over, ran just over him," Smith said.
"You could hear him hit the child and the child go up under the
truck."
Smith said the boy's mother ran into the street and held the
child, who Smith said is named Quenterion. "He was just bloody
and had blood running down his legs," Smith said. "He just
passed out in her arms. His mouth moved a little."
He said the child had flown through the air about 3 feet when
he was hit.
"We were holding him and he was bleeding all over," Smith
said. "He laid there like he was dead."
The mother thought the street was empty of traffic when she
told her son to cross it, Smith said. The SUV came speeding
around the corner and into the left lane of the one-way
street.
Other neighbors said they heard tires screeching on the
pavement and something that sounded like two vehicles
colliding. When they left their homes or the park where many
were spending the evening to see what happened, they saw the
boy in the road.
The SUV pulled ahead a bit, stopped and sped away, witnesses
said.
People who live on the street say this stretch of Marquette
Street is often dangerous, with vehicles driving 70 or 80
mph at night when children are playing outside their homes
or in the nearby park.
After the crash
For nearly an hour after the crash, neighbors - many of them
young and on bikes or bouncing basketballs in the dark -
watched police and paramedics survey the scene and place
the boy into the ambulance.
Officers taped off the scene about 40 minutes after the crash
and inspected, among other things, the boy's white tennis
shoe that was left on the ground.
Racine Police Sgt. Charles Ashbeck said the boy was taken
to St. Mary's Medical Center. There was no word on his
condition late Wednesday night.
Category: Other Posted by: Editor Rob
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