12-year-old girl hit by car in Cary, taken to hospital with life-threatening injuries

CARY, N.C. (WTVD) -- A 12-year-old child is in the hospital with life-threatening injuries after being hit by a car while walking home from school in Cary Monday afternoon.

The crash happened around 3:30 p.m. at the intersection of North Harrison Avenue and West Wyatts Pond Lane.

Richard Price lives on the corner, just feet away from the crash and saw the girl on the ground motionless.

"I ran back inside, called 911, and I'm sure I was the third or fourth person who called. They seemed to know what was going on," Price said. "Then I ran up to (Reedy Creek Middle School) and told them there had been an accident close by."

Cheryl Brock also lives along Wyatts Pond. She watched as anxious Reedy Creek Middle parents arrived on scene unsure if it was their child who was hit.

"The middle school had just let out. And people didn't know whose child had gotten hit," Brock said. "And it was kind of heart-wrenching because you saw people and they didn't know. Parents' faces were all scrunched up."

The crash occurred as two girls were walking home from the nearby middle school.

Their friend, Kaylie Pepin, told ABC11 they had just dropped her off at her house across Harrison Avenue and were walking back.

"One of the girls crossed over and then the other girl was like, 'Ok, come back here, stop playing games' and then she ran back but wasn't looking. So, that's how she got hit," Pepin said. "It's very scary."

But why were the girls walking home, crossing a busy road, when they're assigned to Reedy Creek school buses?

Pepin's stepfather, Matt Dupree, said his daughter's bus is severely overcrowded.

"We live right there. We were uncomfortable with her crossing Harrison. So, we said 'Ride the bus! Ride the bus!' But she's always telling me the buses are overcrowded, 'I have to sit on the floor,'" Dupree said.

Pepin said she sits on the floor "almost every day."

"If they would've taken care of the busing situation, I really feel like then this would've been 100 percent prevented," Dupree added

The child was taken to WakeMed Hospital for treatment.

The driver of the car was not injured.

A Wake County Public Schools spokesperson told ABC11 that the district reviewed surveillance tapes and school bus count from the bus that victim and her friends are assigned to. The district says the victim's bus is "under capacity", there's no evidence that students were sitting on the floor, and the students would have no reason to sit on the floor.