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JAMESTOWN – A student was taken to UPMC Chautauqua Hospital after they were hit by a vehicle near Persell Middle School on Tuesday morning.
Jamestown Police tell WNY News Now the middle schooler was struck by a vehicle on Hazeltine Avenue just before the intersection with Baker Street around 8:20 a.m.
The child, police say, suffered very minor injuries and was taken to the hospital for evaluation. He is expected to recover.
Officers say this appears to be an accident, with the student stepping out in front of the car.
The student was not in a cross walk at the time, police report. The only two cross walks in the area are in the intersection of Hazeltine and State Street and Hazeltine and Baker Street.
In a statement Jamestown Public Schools says they will increase supervision and monitoring during arrival and dismissal times to prevent future incidents. The school also plans to work with the City of Jamestown to explore installing additional crosswalks in the area.
Additionally, the school says they will work with students and their families to double down on the importance of traffic safety.
The full statement is posted below:
“This morning during school arrival, a Persell Middle School student was struck by a car on Hazeltine Avenue near Baker Street. The Jamestown Police Department and Emergency Medical Services responded quickly to the incident. The student was transported to the hospital as a precautionary measure and the parents were notified.
As the safety of students and staff is our first priority, the District is taking a number of steps to review and reinforce traffic safety procedures. The District will increase supervision and monitoring during arrival and dismissal, and will continue to remind students of the expectation to cross only in designated crosswalks. The district has contacted the City of Jamestown to explore a partnership in a traffic study of the Hazeltine Ave and Baker Street intersection for potential traffic control devices and pedestrian safety measures.
We have asked our families to discuss with their children the importance of crossing only at crosswalks and taking care to watch for oncoming traffic before entering the street. We ask our community to also observe the 20 mph speed limit in school zones and watch for pedestrians.”
I have to say that this article is very misleading and that car was going way faster than it should have been coming down Baker and around the corner. Hopefully that hits that driver’s conscience hard that he would lie about how fast he was going and the fact that he was speeding in a school zone. My son watch it happen and this is the one that reported it to the school as soon as it happened. Jamestown public schools need to step up and do something as does the city. The crosswalk on Baker Street has been broken for 3 years now there’s no reason why the kids should not be able to hit the button and that light turns red for traffic to stop and it should do the same thing on hazeltine. All I can say is the school and the city is very lucky that this student, nor the student that was just hit 2 weeks ago in the same spot was my child. You tell me why every other school in Jamestown district has multiple crosswalks as well as crossing guards, but Percell Middle School and Lincoln Elementary does not? Vehicles are always going way too fast on hazeltine and Baker Street but the cops aren’t around pulling people over or giving tickets for speeding in the school zone. I do believe that the school and City should drop the speed limit down to 10 mph or 15 mph around the school. Then maybe people will at least drop down to 20 or 25 and they’ll still be allowed to speed through the zone with no repercussion or tickets. Jamestown schools did not care about the student safety enough to press for crosswalks or prosper it to be working and they sure didn’t care about the student safety to be out there before or after school until today when this news station was there and the second child in 3 weeks has been hit.
As a Parent Board of education dept should have Crossing guard people working crossing the kids and they have Police car around everyday watching kids and people violating the law.
Police cop should be near the schools everyday protecting the kids and Ny should upgrade on this.The dept board of education should know what I mean
Police cop should be near the schools everyday protecting the kids and Ny should upgrade on this.The dept board of education should know what I mean