Two Teen Students Injured in Van Nuys Hit and Run
The driver of an older model, teal-green Nissan pickup did not stop
Whit Johnson
Two middle school students were hit by a car and seriously injured as they crossed a Van Nuys intersection Tuesday morning. Police are still searching for the driver, which surveillance video shows was driving an older model, teal-green Nissan pickup truck. Whit Johnson reports from Van Nuys for the NBC4 News at 5 p.m. on Sept. 18, 2012.
Two 14-year-old students at Mulholland Middle School were injured in a hit-and-run collision in Van Nuys early Tuesday.
A boy and a girl were crossing the street in a crosswalk just after 7 a.m. when a truck going eastbound hit them on Vanowen Street at Ranchito Avenue (map), Los Angeles police said.
Juliana Amaya, 17, said she and another student were crossing Vanowen just behind the pair -- after the light had changed in their favor -- when the truck ran the red light and collided with the boy and girl.
"I just stopped because I knew the car wasn't gonna stop but they didn't see the car going fast because they were talking," Amaya said.
Amaya said she ran to get help and find one of the students' parents, knowing they were nearby. The boy and girl were good friends, she said.
The four teens who were crossing the street regularly see each other on their way to the bus stop each morning before school, Amaya said.
She said the girl was lying in the street screaming and crying. The boy seemed so badly hurt that he was not making noise, she said.
The two students were taken to Northridge Hospital in serious condition, authorities said. The boy underwent surgery Monday and both students are expected to stay in the hospital overnight for observation.
The pair were on their way to Mulholland Middle School in Lake Balboa, several miles west of the collision site, according to Los Angeles Unified School District spokeswoman Monica Carazo.
Police said the suspect vehicle was an older, teal-green Nissan truck with damage to the front end on the right.
Meanwhile, the community is pleading for information in the incident, which may have been caught on surveillance cameras at a nearby apartment complex.
Anyone with information on the case was urged to call Valley Traffic Division detectives at (818) 644-8020, or (877) LAPD-247.
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