Child handing out candy at Oregon holiday parade is hit by speeding driver, cops say
A 9-year-old girl was handing out candy at a holiday parade in Oregon when a speeding driver barreled through authorities and struck her, deputies said.
The 69-year-old man tried to drive around the parade at about 7 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 10, in Oakridge, but sped past officers’ lights and into the parade, the Lane County Sheriff’s Office said.
Before the crash, the girl was handing out candy canes with her friends at the Parade of Lights — a parade hosted by Oakridge Fire & EMS.
“The four 9-year-old girls with us ... all had smiles from ear to ear while they held hands, danced and laughed to the Christmas tunes,” Chrissy Hollett, who was with the children, said in a Facebook post.
Then Hollett, who works for the fire department, said they saw a van “coming right at us.”
Hollett and a friend yelled at the van to slow down, but the driver accelerated instead, she said.
The driver hit the 9-year-old, deputies said.
“We were in complete shock from what we just saw for no regards of several human lives,” she said in the Facebook post.
Hollett said when the van struck the girl “head on,” she went 6 feet up in the air and about 10 feet backward before hitting the ground.
The child was then taken to a hospital with serious injuries, deputies said.
Some of her injuries included a fractured clavicle, three broken ribs, lacerated lung, contusion on the lower lung and road rash, Hollett said.
“She’s one tough cookie, but her injuries are still significant and she will need a lot of time to heal,” Hollett said.
The driver from Oakridge was arrested on charges of reckless endangering, reckless driving, and second-degree assault, deputies said.
Oakridge is about 45 miles southeast of Eugene.
This story was originally published December 14, 2022 at 1:07 PM with the headline "Child handing out candy at Oregon holiday parade is hit by speeding driver, cops say."
