“[The driver] did strike and run over the child,” Lorenz said.
The driver stopped after striking the girl, leaving her vehicle in the marked crosswalk. She remained at the crash.
“She was not under the influence,” Lorenz said.
Paramedics arrived at the crash and transported the girl to the nearest hospital because her injuries were severe, Lorenz said.
Doctors tried to revive the girl after they discovered she had a delayed pulse that came every five seconds, he said. But doctors eventually pronounced her dead.
“It was a valiant effort by hospital staff,” Lorenz said.
Police were investigating whether rising sun was a factor in the crash, he said, since the driver wasn’t driving fast.
The driver was cooperating with investigators, he said. But she appeared shaken and cried aloud as she was escorted by an officer.
Police tried to piece together clues about the collision as Glendale Unified School District administrators met inside the middle school to discuss a plan to make grief counseling available for students and staff.
Police used yellow tape to block off the street.
Parents use the street to drop their children at the middle school, Hoover High School and Mark Keppel Elementary School. The schools are located on the same street.
Hoover High students watched from the school’s balcony as police investigated the crash.
“It’s everyone’s nightmare,” said Linda Gubler Junge, the Glendale Unified School District’s public information director.
School officials sent out a recorded message to parents about the crash and let them know grief counseling would be available.
School counselors throughout the district were asked to come to the middle school to provide support, Supt. Michael Escalante said.
Counselors also were available to the victim’s siblings as well as the driver’s children, he said.
“It’s absolutely tragic,” Escalante said.
Arpi Kazyan and her sister rushed over to the middle school when they found out a child was struck. Kazyan’s sister feared that her child was struck, but her sister’s child wasn’t hit, she said.
“She’s in shock,” Kazyan said.
Joy and Edel Ramos’ 9-year-old son attends the nearby elementary school, and they have always had concerns about the crosswalk in front of the middle school.
“We have to be careful dropping off our kid in the mornings because it is very busy,” Edel Ramos said.
The street has been busier than usual this school year because the schools in the area are on the same year-round schedule, he said.
“It seems like something might happen any time,” Edel Ramos said. “You just don’t know.”
