HARRIS COUNTY, Texas – Each day, thousands of children throughout the greater Houston area walk to school. Most, if not all of them, thankfully, get there safely; but for one local family that walk to school almost turned deadly.
It was early on in the 2021-2022 school year, two sisters in elementary school were walking to Sheridan Elementary School in Cy-Fair ISD along busy Keith Harrow Boulevard.
Kelly Key, a mother with a son at Sheridan was bringing her son to school.
“This car just flew past us. And I just kind of said to myself, ‘slow down!’” she said. “All of a sudden we hear a loud crash. So I slow down thinking he has hit a car and we are going to stop, and I couldn’t quite understand what happened. I don’t remember seeing a car. And it took me a minute to understand he hit a child. I saw debris fly up, and it was dark, my eyes were trying to focus, and I realize it’s two children laying on the ground so I put my car in park and I run out.”
One girl was 7 at the time, the other 12.
“I ran to the youngest, someone coming in the opposite direction, stopped and ran to the other child. She was trying to get up and move and I said ‘No, don’t move we are going to call somebody,” Key explained. “And she just said, ‘I want my mommy. I want my mommy.’ She was just asking for her mom. So, I asked ‘What’s your phone number, I am going to call your mom.’ She was able to tell me her mom’s phone number.”
Adana Gomez is the mother of the girls hit by a vehicle. She recalled the phone call she received from an unknown caller.
“I got a call from an unknown number. Your daughter has been in a car accident, that’s all I heard,” Gomez said, in tears. “I dropped the phone. I walked into the EMS truck and I saw my 7-year-old at the time just violently shaking and crying, and kept asking me, ‘mommy, what happened?’ And my 12-year-old daughter was laid out, on the stretcher, unable to speak, unable to move.”
The 12-year-old girl was rushed to Texas Medical Center where she underwent multiple surgeries for several bone fractures. The younger of the two sisters suffered a minor injury.
The flashing yellow lights, indicating a school zone, seen nearby where the girls were hit, are new.
The two women met when KPRC’s Zach Lashway interviewed them. From one mother to another, Key added, “I pray for you every day.”
Their pain and relief sent Lashway on a mission to get answers. How does one go about seeking change in their community to make it safer? He arrived at Harris County Precinct 3.
“The first things that went in there are school zone flashers, as part of our school zone safety improvement program.” Eric Heppen with Precinct 3 Commissioner Tom Ramsey said.
Those specific flashing lights were not in place at the time of this specific incident.
“Anytime anyone wants improvements, their intersection isn’t safe, they should contact Harris County Precinct 3.” Heppen said.
As for crosswalks in a school zone, Heppen said they are not only installed if the school district commits a crossing guard.
“When you put a crosswalk on the ground it gives pedestrians a very safe sense of where to cross. So if an ISD commits a crossing guard, we install a crosswalk.” Heppen said.
No charges were filed in the hit-and-run incident.
According to Cy-Fair ISD, its police department will train school staff to be crossing guards for this crosswalk.
The girls continue to recover from the incident according to their mother.