A Santa Maria middle school student is hospitalized after being hit by a car while on her way to school.
It happened at the intersection of Railroad and El Camino, not far from El Camino Junior High School Wednesday morning.
Police say the girl was taken to the hospital with major injuries.
“It's tragic, to say the least,” said Officer Andy Brice, Traffic Investigator with the Santa Maria Police Department.
It’s the second day in a row that a child has been hit by a car on their way to school.
On Tuesday, an elementary school student was hit on a bicycle at the intersection of Jones and Lincoln just after 7 a.m.
“It doesn't appear that the drivers have done anything wrong but we want people to exercise caution,” Officer Brice said.
School is back in session and that means more kids are walking or biking the streets in the mornings and afternoons.
Anthony Silva is a crossing guard a couple of blocks down from where the little girl was hit on Wednesday.
“I'm crossing anywhere from 150 to 180 in the morning and then in the afternoon, I'm doing about 200,” Silva said.
“We have some public transport issues obviously, that are important to note, and as a result, there are just a lot more kids out there,” Officer Brice added.
El Camino Junior High School is one of the three schools within the Santa Maria-Bonita School District that no longer has bus service due to a driver shortage.
Meanwhile, some neighbors say many drivers go well above the speed limit and kids often jaywalk so they’d like to see more safety measures for everyone’s sake.
“Especially during school time, they should have a crosswalk,” said neighbor, Freddie Ontiveros. “There are no crosswalks at all right there. A crosswalk would help.”
Others say they’d like to see stop signs or even a signal go in.
The child hit on Tuesday was also taken to the hospital with major injuries. She’s expected to be okay.
We reached out to the City of Santa Maria to see if there are any planned improvements to the intersection of Railroad and El Camino but have not yet heard back.
Santa Maria's Department of Public Works says it'll work with the public department to determine the cause of Wednesday's collision at the intersection of Railroad and El Camino as well as study options to improve safety in the area.
