Appleton parents, community members outraged after second child hit at intersection in seven months

APPLETON, Wis. (WFRV) – For the second time since April, a child was hit and injured at the busy six-way intersection between Badger and College Aves. and Story St. It was an all too familiar scene Tuesday afternoon and one that witnesses still can not believe their eyes.

"Unimaginable, it was like slo-mo, you know what's going to happen before it does and I could see the kids there, and some of them scattered away, but... it was terrible," Appleton parent Madeline Schreiber said. "As soon as it was coming this way and I saw it was going up the median and onto the sidewalk, I told my kids, screamed at them, to look away."

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According to witnesses, two cars collided before one of them went up on the sidewalk and ran over the 7th-grade girl.

Schreiber then put her van in park, and directed traffic around the injured girl and crashed cars. She was relieved the girl was conscious and crying out for help, which was not far away.

"There was a lot of people screaming, it was a big traumatic scene," Shelly Dempewolf, a nurse driving across town at the time, said. "I just kind of went over and helped stop bleeding and said 'Let's get a blanket, let's get a pillow.' It was pretty graphic, it was a pretty bad accident."

The City of Appleton, Appleton Police Department and Appleton Area School District all declined a request for comment Wednesday. The 7th-grade girl is expected to make a full recovery, according to parents with knowledge of the situation.

"I heard thankfully that the girl is going to be ok. It's a long road I'm sure, but it's a relief," Schreiber said. "I contemplated letting my daughter walk home before, and I'm not going to lie, the intersection makes me nervous. So I always pick her up, and I recognize that I have the privilege to do that. If they don't change, I don't know if I'll ever feel comfortable enough for her to walk home."

The six-way intersection is just two blocks from Wilson Middle School. Parents say that there are no crossing guards in the area because it is not an elementary school.

Appleton resident Ashley Van Den Elsen was on the phone with her daughter when her daughter's friend was struck as they walked home from school in a large group together.

"The group of friends is pretty traumatized by it, they're taking it hard," she said. "That could have been my daughter, that could have been any one of them, it's scary, it's not something my daughter should have to witness either."

Back in April, another middle school-aged girl was hit as she crossed the intersection on her bicycle.

"Two's too many, in my opinion," Dempewolf said. "Everybody's in a hurry, everybody is. That's just the world we live in today, but is it worth it, is it worth the trauma for the child, the children that were watching, and even the driver themselves?"

For as scary as the scene was, witnesses say it could have been even worse.

"You have what, like six different streets coming to a point in one area? Anytime you have all that going on it's going to be kind of nuts," Dempewolf said. "That car could have taken out all of those kids, not just hurt one. It could've taken out all of those kids just standing on the corner."

Parents believe that the intersection is too dangerous to go unchanged.

"It's a complicated intersection because there's a lot of streets coming together, a lot of busy streets coming together there," Schreiber said. "Maybe extending the school zone to go past that intersection, and maybe even out on College for a bit, having people slow down for a time once students are dismissed."

Van Den Elsen would like to see more crossing guards for students of all ages, not just in elementary school.

"They need to do something about the crosswalks over there, they need crossing guards, there have been too many accidents over there," she said. "They should have crossguards there, they have to have more safety there. And it scares me that every day knowing that my daughter has to cross that street and you have drivers that just don't know how to drive."

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While the girl was run over on the sidewalk and a crossing guard may not have prevented this crash, Dempewolf thinks that just the presence of a crossing guard can prevent future crashes.

"A crossing guard wouldn't stop that one from happening, no, but if a crossing guard is there everybody slows down," she said.