Kensington Girl Hit in Crosswalk Near Colusa Circle, Police Investigating

A 10-year-old Kensington girl was hit by a car when she was in a crosswalk on Colusa Avenue just north of Colusa Circle in Kensington last Wednesday, police said.

The driver of the car – an elderly woman from Berkeley – apparently did not see the child, said Kensington police Sgt. Keith Barrow.

The girl, a student at Kensington Hilltop Elementary School, was taken by ambulance to a local hospital, he said. Her family Tuesday night said she is appears to have not suffered any serious injuries. She is refraining from athletic activities until her follow-up check-up, they said.

The girl was in the crosswalk at Sante Fe Avenue about 5:06 p.m. when she was struck. Vehicles traveling north on Colusa stopped for her, Barrow said. The car that struck her was going south and, seeing the other cars stopped, slowed down and was not speeding but did not stop, he said.

The collision knocked the girl up onto the car hood and into the windshield, which was "smashed and partly pushed in," Barrow said.

The driver stopped right after the collision, and the girl was able to get up and walk around, Barrow said. The girl complained of back pain and was placed on a back-board before being put into the ambulance, he said.

The driver was not cited at the time, Barrow said. Whether a citation may yet be issued will depend on the outcome of his investigation, which is continuing, he said. There were some conflicting accounts on whether the girl may have been running, he said.

The crosswalk is about four blocks south of another Colusa crosswalk at Fairmount Avenue where a 17-year-old Kensington girl was hit by a car in July. She was taken to a hospital with an ankle injury.

At its meeting last Thursday, the Kensington Hilltop Elementary School PTA voted to investigate installing flags for pedestrians to use at that intersection where the 10-year-old girl was hit and elsewhere at Colusa Circle, said PTA President Romy Douglass.

Leslie Reckler, who heads the PTA's intersection flags projects, said she contacted Contra Costa County officials after the meeting and said it's likely that the county will send a traffic engineer to the intersections to evaluate the possibility. The county oversees streets in Kensington, which is unincorporated.

The PTA, with a county permit, has previously installed crossing flags at about 10 crosswalk intersections in Kensington, mostly around the school and some around Arlington Avenue, Reckler said.

Last week's collision also revived neighborhood alarm about traffic safety along Colusa.

"We are likely to use this incident as a catalyst for improving pedestrian safety on the Circle," said resident Rodney Paul.

Residents say that speeding along Colusa is a continuing hazard for people, as well as cars parked on the street. Another stretch of Colusa further north in El Cerrito has also prompted numerous neighborhood complaints.