Chapel Hill police charge driver in school playground crash that injured 3 children
Chapel Hill police charged a driver Wednesday with a safe movement violation after a crash that injured three children playing Tuesday afternoon outside Northside Elementary School.
Fiona Evans, 40, of Chapel Hill, was parking her sport-utility vehicle in a parking lot next to the playground when she hit the gas pedal instead of the brake pedal, police said in a news release. Her SUV crashed through a fence, striking playground equipment and two of the children injured.
School officials said about 20 young children were on the playground for the Community Schools afterschool program.
Evans and the two children who were hit were taken to UNC Hospitals for treatment of their injuries, police said. One child remained at the hospital Wednesday, they said. A third child was treated at the scene for minor injuries.
Chapel Hill Police Crisis Unit counselors are offering support to the families involved and the Northside Elementary School community, police said in the release.
4th accident with injuries
Tuesday’s crash was Chapel Hill’s fifth involving pedestrians and cyclists since Dec. 31, and the second in which children were injured.
Around noon on Tuesday, a cyclist riding west on Franklin Street near Graham Street was thrown from the bike and seriously injured when the driver of a parked car opened their door to get out. The cyclist was taken to UNC Hospitals with life-threatening injuries, police reported, noting the investigation continues.
A middle-school student also remains hospitalized with life-threatening injuries she suffered on New Year’s Eve when police say a Durham driver plowed into her and a friend while they were in a crosswalk in front of Phillips Middle School on North Estes Drive.
The other girl also was injured, but has since been released from the hospital.
The driver, Norma Martin, 69, of Durham, was charged with failing to yield to pedestrians in a marked crosswalk.
Neighbors gathered at the crosswalk after the Dec. 31 collision to demand that the town stem speeding and protect pedestrians and cyclists using local roads.
The town has a long-delayed project slated to start this spring, which would add bike lanes, sidewalks and high-visibility pedestrian crossings to Estes Drive. In the meantime, the town has stepped up police patrols and pedestrian safety operations.
Police were enforcing pedestrian safety in front of Phillips Middle School on Jan. 11 when another pedestrian was injured roughly a half-mile west at the intersection of Estes Drive and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
Police said the driver, Jason Ward, 46, of Efland, was turning east onto Estes Drive when he hit the pedestrian, causing non-life-threatening injuries. Ward was charged with failing to yield to a pedestrian in a marked crosswalk. The pedestrian was taken to UNC Hospitals for treatment.
Another pedestrian was injured on Jan. 20 after being hit at 5:57 p.m. in a midblock pedestrian crosswalk on East Franklin Street, between Estes Drive and Couch Road. The pedestrian declined to be taken to the hospital, police spokesman Alex Carrasquillo said.
The 16-year-old driver in that crash also was charged with failing to yield to a pedestrian in a marked crosswalk. The driver’s name has not been released, because the person is a juvenile.
This story was originally published January 26, 2022 at 10:43 AM with the headline "Chapel Hill police charge driver in school playground crash that injured 3 children."
