KSHB 41 reporter La’Nita Brooks covers stories providing solutions and offering discussions on topics of crime and violence. She also covers stories in the Northland. Share your story idea with La’Nita.
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A growing memorial has formed as community members stop by to pay their respects to the little girl who lost her life after being struck by a vehicle while riding her bike to school Tuesday morning.
The incident has left the community in mourning.
David Griffin, who lives near the intersection, became emotional discussing the tragedy.
"I got seven grandsons and one granddaughter, I got grandkids, and I see how these kids just doing what a kid do, just playing or whatever," Griffin said. "But this child was just going to school, and her parents were looking for her to come back home and now she gone."
The crash happened around 7 a.m. at the intersection of Longview Road and Food Lane. A man driving a white transit van hit the girl. This marks the third crash to occur at that intersection this year.
The incident has sparked a larger conversation about safety concerns in the area, especially for bike riders and pedestrians.
We reached out to the city for a statement on the intersection's safety:
"Kansas City's Vision Zero team will be evaluating the intersection in response to the tragedy. This is the unfortunate data that informs the City's High Injury Network [kcmo.gov], which is used when prioritizing safety improvements."
Neighbor Zach Rodgers believes speed bumps could help address the problem.
"I think speed bumps would probably prevent people from being able to go high speed, even if there was a cross guard," Rodgers said. "Cause sometimes they just don't have respect for anyone else on the road."
Griffin said speeding is a persistent problem in the neighborhood.
"We got cars running down these side streets doing about 60," Griffin said.
Griffin said he hopes the city learns from this tragedy to prevent future incidents.
"Take heed and take notes and give us more speed bumps and plus give us more sidewalks in our community," Griffin said.
We reached out to the Hickman Mills School District Tuesday and Wednesday to see if there are any plans to increase safety at that intersection, including adding crossing guards.
We had not heard back from the district at the time this story was published.
If you would like to donate to the family during this difficult time, click the link for their GoFundMe.
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