By Jennifer Smola, The Columbus Dispatch, and staff
COLUMBUS – Columbus police are urging parents to talk with their children about street and parking lot safety after three children were struck and killed by vehicles in less than two weeks.
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Sixth-grader Favour Agu was the latest victim in the string of fatal crashes involving juveniles. The 11-year-old was struck shortly before 7 a.m. Thursday on Karl Road as he was walking to Woodward Park Middle School. He was pronounced dead a short time later.
A van and a sedan were involved in the crash, police said. Both vehicles remained parked along the west side of Karl Road, near a pair of red sneakers and a backpack, as police investigated Thursday morning.
Police were trying to determine whether the boy may have darted out in front of traffic, said Sgt. Duane Mabry. There didn’t appear to be any reckless driving involved, he said.
Safety tip for kids
If your children need to use a cell phone, make sure they stop walking and find a safe area to talk. When using headphones, kids should be sure to look up and pay extra attention and remove the headphones when crossing the street.
Cross streets at corners, using traffic signals and crosswalks. Most injuries happen mid-block or someplace other than intersections.
It’s always best to walk on sidewalks or paths. If there are no sidewalks, walk facing traffic as far to the left as possible.
Tell kids to look left, right and left again when crossing the street. Teach them to never run or dart out into the street or cross between parked cars.
Remind kids to make eye contact with drivers before crossing in front of them and to watch out for cars that are turning or backing up.
–Source: SafeKids Worldwide
That crash came just 12 hours after a 7-year-old girl was struck and killed by an SUV about two miles away. The girl was hit in the parking lot of the Kingshill Court Apartments, near the intersection of Morse Road and I-71. Authorities hadn’t released the girls’ name as of Thursday night, as immediate family members continued to notify other family.
On Sept. 11, 6-year-old Cheick Camara was struck by a vehicle while he was riding his bicycle around his Northeast Side neighborhood. He was struck in a parking lot of Woodbridge Condominiums around 5:20 p.m. and was taken to Nationwide Children’s Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.
“This is hard on this community,” Mabry said at the scene of Thursday’s crash. “If the rest of the community can surround these folks and pray for this community … that would be huge. This is a lot to deal with to have two children (fatally struck) in 12 hours, and this is the third one in the last two weeks.”
At 6:48 a.m. Thursday, police say Jose Montero, 65, in a 2003 Saturn L300, and Michael Grove, 55, in a 2012 Ford E150 van, were both driving southbound on Karl Road at Penworth Drive when Favour ran across Karl Road toward the school, on the west side of the street, just south of the intersection when he was struck by at least one of the vehicles.
Favour was taken to Riverside Methodist Hospital but was pronounced dead shortly after arrival.
Investigators say Montero was been charged with operating a vehicle without a license but no fault had been assigned to the crash.
The investigation was still ongoing early Friday.