Over the last three months I’ve seen, read, or been told about numerous situations involving cars hitting people or coming very close to doing so as pedestrians are walking across the street.

In October 2024, a Northbrook student in Mendota was hit by a vehicle walking in the crosswalk across Guiles Avenue, the road the school is on, to 16^th Street.

In September, a month earlier, a similar issue happened in Lafayette, Colorado on two separate occasions with kids being hit while riding a bike or walking in crosswalks before or after school, near a school.

It also happened in May along a school in Cincinnati and in February on a Chicago roadway.

A middle-school male student suffered a broken leg and facial injuries after being struck by a vehicle while walking in an Ohio (the state) crosswalk at 8:30 a.m. Monday, January 27, 2025.

I found more and read about each of the instances.

Some didn’t have a crossing guard.

One was at an intersection without working lights and no stop sign.

A couple were on straight intersections and others involved a curved street.

I even read one story where there was a cop a block away patrolling a street and he had to jump in his squad car and chase a driver after clipping a kid as the student was getting off a school bus and trying to transfer to another bus to get home.

Obviously, the one in Mendota at Northbrook hits closer to home, well, because it is home or the surrounding area. A situation where someone gets hurt affects all of us in some way.

It could be your kid. Or your sister’s middle schooler. Or your brother’s sixth-grade genius. Or the list could go on and on how we could be connected when something happens to anyone in a community the size of Mendota.

If you’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it a million times, “Everyone knows everyone or is connected in some way.”

Which for the most part, is why a lot of Mendota residents stay in Mendota, because we know the people in the community.

At the same time, if we could know the student getting hit, we could also know the person driving the vehicle.

We could know the person driving too fast.

The driver not paying attention.

The individual being reckless.

The ignorant adult who could injury or kill an innocent young child.

In the stories I read or was told, there was blame put on police departments because there wasn’t anyone patrolling the school crosswalks. There was also blame put on staff shortages and no one wanting to take on the job. Also, school administrators and teachers for not worrying about the student’s safety.

There was blame put on the children for walking across the street when it wasn’t their turn or when they shouldn’t.

Responsibility was put on lack of volunteers or the lack of people wanting to get paid to be a crossing guard.

I didn’t find many stories following the same narrative.

There was only one intangible in each story which was the same…someone was driving too fast and hit a kid.

We all have places to go, people to see, missions to accomplish.

But the first one should always be to make sure the people are safe around us, which also includes the people who be crossing the street in front of you.

Slow down, keep your eyes on the road, be aware of students scurrying across streets, and be mindful of could happen if you’re not being a diligent driver and human being.

It’s easy, slow down in school zones and the walkways.