LYNNWOOD — A 15-year-old Meadowdale High School girl was hit by a van April 19 while walking to school.
According to Asst. Fire Chief Tod Gates, the girl was in stable condition with no life threatening injuries and transported by private ambulance to Harborview Medical Center.
Lynnwood Police Officer Stephen Showalter said the driver, a local man, of the full-size van that hit the girl was traveling east and was blinded by the sun.
“He wasn’t able to see the pedestrian as she walked in front of him,” Showalter said, adding that the man was very upset and because of the way the van stopped, police could tell the man wasn’t traveling very fast.
“He probably wasn’t going more than 20 mph (the speed limit in the school zone) but she did take quite a hit and was thrown,” Showalter said.
Someone at the scene contacted the girl’s mother who lives very near the school, Showalter said, and was fortunately able to get to the scene in time to accompany her daughter to the hospital.
Showalter said he talked to the mother Tuesday afternoon and she said while her daughter is in pain, there doesn’t appear to be any life-threatening injuries.
Though there is no indication the man was speeding, incidents like this are a good time to remind drivers to be mindful of students in school zones, public safety officials said.
According to Showalter, school zone violations are special in the sense that the fine is a fixed penalty of $177 and cannot be reduced by a judge. “You either did it or you didn’t,” he said.
He added, the Lynnwood Police department is very aggressive in enforcing the school zones. “Especially in the Meadowdale area — it was unusual there wasn’t an officer there (that) morning,” Showalter said.
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