Pedestrian Struck by Truck Is Student At Oak Lawn-Hometown Middle School

A student from was struck by a pickup truck while crossing the intersection of 93rd Street and Cicero Avenue Thursday morning.

official confirmed that the injured pedestrian was an eighth-grade student at the middle school, which was having an awards ceremony Thursday morning.

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The severely injured girl, said to be around 13, resides in Hometown, and had apparently missed the school bus. She was taken to where she is said to be in stable condition.

said the girl was walking across Southwest Highway from north to south on the west side of Cicero Avenue at approximately 8:13 a.m. when she was struck by the pickup truck that was traveling eastbound on 93rd Street. Police said the driver of the pickup truck was still on the scene when they arrived.

A man who witnessed the accident from his car while he was stopped in traffic facing southbound on Cicero Avenue, said it looked like the girl became confused crossing the intersection.

“She got into the turning lane and jumped back like she knew she made a mistake,” Kevin Kaplan said. “She just started across the intersection like she was going to make a run for it. The truck never even saw her."

Although the girl did not see the truck coming toward her, Kaplan and the woman in the car next to his both did.

“I was screaming in my car, ‘no,’” Kaplan said. “I could see the truck coming and the girl running. The woman in the car next to me, we were both looking at each other, yelling 'no.' She was hysterical.”

The impact of the truck knocked the girl airborne over the intersection to the east side of Cicero Avenue.

Kaplan got of his car and went to the girl’s aid but “she was not in good shape.” The driver of the pickup truck, a man in his thirties, was “pretty shaken up,” Kaplan said.

“I went over and gave him a hug when I left” he added.

The father of a 12-year-old daughter, Kaplan said he couldn’t get Thursday morning’s events out of his mind.  

Dist. 123 officials said that counselors would be available Friday morning for students at the middle school. Graduation exercises for eighth-grade students are next week.

Late Thursday afternoon, a friend of the injured girl left her a message on Patch:

“Please be okay stay strong, ill keep you in my prayers ... me and O.L.H.M.S miss you.”