Despite high safety ranking, Bakersfield faces tragic reminder with child's injury

Bakersfield continues to work on improving street safety, but on Wednesday they were reminded of just how critical those efforts are.

Tragedy struck when an 8-year-old boy was hit by a car while crossing the corner of Holtby Road and Bank Street.

One neighbor who lives near Roosevelt Elementary witnessed the aftermath after hearing the driver scream and kneel on the ground after the collision.

"It was a bit of a crazy scene, I heard a lot of hysteric screaming and crying when I was inside my house, and it's not everyday you hear that, so I rushed out and lot of people were running around the car," said Sebastian Cruz.

Neighbors also said the child suffered a severe scalp injury, and was rushed to the hospital in critical condition.

Many stressed that the city needs to pay closer attention to school zone safety, particularly where children cross the streets.

"People drive pretty fast on this street all the time. I think the drive fast because it's a wide street and they feel like they can't really hit anything cause there's not a lot of things in the way, and I think they get too comfortable on these wide streets," Cruz added.

This incident is just one of many that highlighted the urgency behind Bakersfield's ongoing efforts to enhance pedestrian safety.

October is Pedestrian Safety Month in the U.S., and while the city was recently ranked second safest for pedestrians in the nation according to a , there's still work to be done.

Joe Conroy with the City of Bakersfield says while downtown Bakersfield has seen changes, the city plans to expand these safety measures to other areas, including neighborhoods and school zones.

"We know we're not done, we're gonna look for ways to improve pedestrian safety and safety ford everybody who uses our roads," said Conroy. "We completed a project to add countdown timers at all of our signalized crosswalk intersections."

In July, the compared to the previous year, along with a 17% decrease in deadly traffic crashes.

These numbers are promising, but incidents like Wednesday's crash serve as a reminder of the importance of maintaining safety efforts.

"Crosswalk areas that light up, there's flashing beacon lights especially by school crossings and so again, trying to draw attention to drivers to make sure they're paying attention and know when there's a pedestrian in the street," added Conroy.