KENNEBUNK, Maine — Police are blaming the blinding sun for a Wednesday morning incident in which a Kennebunk 5-year-old was hit by an oncoming car while crossing the road to the school bus.
The girl, whose name has not been released, suffered injuries not considered life-threatening in the accident, which took place on Sea Road. The girl was transported to Maine Medical Center after the 8 a.m. incident, Kennebunk Lt. Dan Jones told the Bangor Daily News Wednesday.
Regional School Unit 21 Superintendent Andrew Dolloff said Wednesday the family of the girl has informed school officials that X-rays have come back negative, that she has not suffered any broken bones or internal injuries. Dolloff said the girl is a student at Kennebunk Elementary School.
According to police, the girl was crossing the street to reach a bus, which was stopped and facing westbound. Gregory Peck, 24, was driving eastbound and reportedly was blinded by the morning sunlight when he allegedly struck the girl, Jones said. The speed limit in that location is 35 miles per hour, and Jones said Peck was not believed to be speeding at the time.
“At this point, unless something comes to light that we’re not aware of, there are no plans on charging him,” Jones said. “There’s no reason to believe [speed] was a factor. … I was the first [police officer] there, and driving there, the sun was really bad.”
Jones said the girl was conscious after the accident.
“She was able to speak and answer questions,” Jones said. “She wasn’t able to speak in complete sentences [because she was crying], but she was aware and understood what we were saying.”
Dolloff said support is being made available to the other kids who were on the bus at the time of the incident.
“There were students from both of those schools [Kennebunk Elementary and nearby Sea Road School] on the bus where the young lady was struck, so we offered counseling for the students and informed parents of what happened,” he said.
That sun is a pain at just the right time,
Common sense > would dictate that, at that hour, a big yellow school bus stopped, that maybe you should air on the side of caution slow down, because perhaps the bus is picking up a child.
The story said that he was not speeding, should he have stopped his car and walked to his destination? If he didn’t see her, he could have hit her at 2mph. The very fact that she did not have life threatening injuries should say something.Who was supervising a 5 year old crossing the street? Perhaps something else detremental-his past record-condition of the car-or his behavior behind the wheel will show up-then we can jump all over him.
Well if you are truly “blinded” by the sun, then would you continue on heedless of the visibility? If your headlights went out late at night, would you continue on?
This happened to me in my children’s school entrance, a woman almost hit me ( I was barely able to jump out of the way) and her response was the sun was in her eyes. I had to remind her that that could have been my child, or hers!
We don’t know if he continued on do we? Is there a chance that he immediately hit her when he was blinded? The facts are not in yet.
Completely agree with you!
Everybody has an excuse , that’s the problem with society today.
You have no idea what happened and neither do I. We might see a story on Thursday showing this guy as the evil empire,or a Choir boy, let’s do something crazy..WAIT FOR THE FACTS.
Hopefully a lesson learned by a driver, he’s lucky there wasn’t a dump truck crossing the highway…..and wishing this little girl well for a speedy and complete recovery from injury…..
I think what this proves is that we need to redefine the message we give kids about crossing with a school bus involved. We have to remind the child not to rely on the school bus alone but to always watch out for themselves, looking both ways and assessing the situation on their own. It is too easy for things like this to happen and we have to make sure the kids are depending on themselves in the final analysis. This is a good life lesson for children and it can start with personal responsibility at this level. I am not suggesting this might have saved this poor little child from this accident but only that we should be focusing on making kids self aware at all time. It would be a second level of safety in addition to the safety provided by law.
You are absolutely right, children need to be taught to be responsible for themselves, to be alert and make sure that traffic is stopped before they cross the street or road.
Of course there are those parents that want to pass the buck and make it “ALL” the schools responsibility for their kids, from when they get up until they go to bed.
And that is why all kids need to be picked up on the driveway side of the street. No need to cross the road
In other States it is ILLEGAL to drop or pick up a grade school child on the wrong side of the street. A law that would have also saved the little girl in Lincoln a whole lot of pain. How many more little ones will have to injured or worse before Maine smartens up?
You are so right. I fought with my school district making them pick up and drop off my children on the right side of the road. SAFTEY is what it is called
…
In other states, they are not picked up at the driveway, they are expected to be at designated bus stop.
Rather than racking up millions of dollars in additional transportation costs and making our children ride the bus longer, why don’t we be responsible parents and walk our kids across the road if they need to cross the road to get on the bus. Before anyone says it, yes, I have kids.
Responsible parents???Think about it. Its
about the safety of our children. If you want to save additional transpiration
cost why don’t you take your kids to school as I did until it was safe for them
to ride the bus. It has nothing to do with being responsible… If the parent
was walking the child across the street what goes to say the parent and the
child wouldn’t be hit? Now I think a responsible parent would make the efforts
to make it safe for your child no matter what.
It wouldn’t be a very responsible parent that would walk themselve and child in front of a moving car. Remember the sun was in the driver’s eye, so it would not be in the parents and child’s eyes.
…..
Schools are already destitute, where do you propose the funds for this change should come from?
Well In like my case, The
bus already drives by my house 4 time, Morning Noon and Night each time. So it
wouldn’t matter to them as far as when they pick my children up, But I also know
that schools are willing to make children safety first. Children come first not
money, and maybe that’s what’s going wrong here.
I get that the sun can really be blinding and some people logically drive slower or attempt to pull over safely but sometimes things happen. I remember when Bush shifted the time of year in which clocks changed child’s safety was one of them, wonder what position the sun would have been if the clocks just stayed an hour ahead…
Bush? Do tell…
Instead of arguing about it on here, everyone should just be relieved this wasn’t a whole lot worse!
No, we should learn how not to let something like this happen again. It was preventable, just as a vast majority of crashes are.
5 why didn’t the parent walk the kid across the street? I would never let my child at 5 walk across the street by themselves Even if the school bus had the flashing lights on.
I never respond to articles, but find myself doing it for the second time today. I was there this morning. I was behind the bus and was with the child, and the driver, until emergency arrived. There are many factors such as the bend the driver was coming around, the blinding light (which affected me as well, even from the other direction), and others. I am awake right now because I can’t stop picturing this morning. I can only imagine how the driver feels right now. I can assure you, it was an accident. They do unfortunately happen at times when all the wrong circumstances fall into place in one split second. Give thanks she is doing well and be kind to a young man who is also suffering.
Um, while I would agree there does not appear to have been a crime committed, I disagree that it was the sun’s fault or that the driver wasn’t driving too fast. Look, if you can’t see, what should be common sense dictates that you pull over and wait until you can see. It’s no different from not having headlights when it’s dark or driving in whiteout conditions during a snowstorm, or not being able to see during a torrential downpour.
Sad that the kid got hit , perhaps should have been walked across the road but didn’t anybody pick up on the name of the driver ?
I drive that road every day and hold my breath when the bus is picking up kids. It’s curvy, bumpy, narrow, full of blind spots, has fairly high traffic in the morning, the sun filters through trees in unexpected places (and that changes every day this time of year), and the bus stops in unexpected places. Most parents are out there with the kids waiting, most drivers are aware and careful, but I’ve found myself driving too fast for the conditions without realizing it too and had to brake quickly.
The speed limit should really be 20 through the curves or even less during bus pickup times. There’s a big school zone on that road that’s posted for 20 with flashing lights and I’ve never seen a kid anywhere within it. I think this area should have flashing lights and be posted for 20 also, or even instead.
there might have been a 200 ft. cliff. Whats wrong folks? sleeping in driver ED.