The car beside her had stopped in front of the crosswalk to let the family by, but the teen driver passed the idling car and hit the pedestrians.
The woman, 6-year-old boy and 3-year-old girl were treated at the hospital for injuries, and fortunately, all survived with relatively minor wounds.
A fourth pedestrian, passing through a crosswalk at Pacific Avenue and Lexington Drive at 7 p.m., wasn’t as lucky. The 81-year-old man, who had a green walking signal, was struck by a motorist trying to make a left turn and died at Los Angeles County/USC Medical Center several hours later.
These incidents, along with the tragedy outside Toll in October, point to a sobering fact: While signs, crossing guards, speed humps and other measures can help to reduce the number of accidents, all it takes for a fatality to occur is one distracted driver or pedestrian.
The motorists involved in the three accidents, judging from what we know, are compassionate and responsible people.
The woman who struck Meri on the crosswalk was a mother who had just dropped off her own child.
She got out of her car and stayed with the student until paramedics arrived. Both the drivers Saturday stopped as soon as they realized they had hit pedestrians.
None tried to play the hit-and-run game.
The vast majority of us go through life without causing a fatal accident, but few, if any, can attest to never having been distracted or making a risky lane change.
As incidents like the recent ones in Glendale remind us, we are the lucky ones.
After the collisions Saturday, Glendale police called for all residents to be alert on the roads this season, whether in a car or on foot.
We urge our readers — and ourselves — to follow that advice and end 2008 on as safe a note as possible.
