Raleigh pedestrian hit-and-run is latest in Triangle involving kids
Two days after a 15-year-old was struck by a car while trying to cross a Raleigh street, another young person was injured on a Triangle road.
A boy on Thursday was in a pedestrian hit-and-run about 6:24 a.m. on Capital Boulevard near Trawick Road, Raleigh police said. The child had injuries that weren’t life-threatening, according to a news release.
The accident comes two days after Raleigh police say Jaylyn Kareem-Jerell Bryant, 15, died from injuries after he was struck trying to cross Rock Quarry Road near Sanderford Road.
In Bryant’s case, a 911 caller told a dispatch operator about 5:45 a.m. March 26 that she saw Bryant when she took her dog outside.
“There’s a bookbag on the sidewalk,” the caller said, according to audio of 911 calls Raleigh police released Thursday. “But there is a body just laying there. I don’t know if the person has been hit. I don’t know if they’re asleep.”
The driver, John Edward Leach, 62, allegedly left the scene and told police he was at another location, The News & Observer previously reported. He was charged Tuesday with hit-and-run causing serious injury or death and obstructing justice, according to police.
In the past two weeks, two other pedestrians have died while crossing Triangle roads.
On March 21, Gustavo Alexis Armenta Valadez, 18, was running across Lombard Street in Clayton when he was hit by a car and died, the town’s police said in a Facebook post. Authorities say the driver stayed at the scene, and they don’t expect to file charges.
Durham police said March 12 that Tommy Rogers, 70, died after he was trying to cross West Cornwallis Road. He was taken to a hospital Feb. 19 with serious injuries, and charges aren’t being filed, according to authorities.
Pedestrian fatalities data
Statewide, there were 200 pedestrian fatalities in 2017, a 1 percent increase from the year before, according to data from the North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles.
That same year, Raleigh recorded 16 pedestrian fatalities, and Durham had five, state data shows.
Across the country, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in 2017 reported “pedestrian fatalities in urban areas increased by 46 percent since 2008.” One in five children younger than 15 who died in traffic accidents were pedestrians, according to the administration’s data.
The agency encourages pedestrians and drivers to be cautious and to avoid being impaired.
Raleigh announced last month it would install pedestrian crosswalks at a South Saunders Street intersection after waiting three years for the state to do so, The News & Observer previously reported.
The proposal came after Jose Amador Hernandez was struck Feb. 1, in the same area and died, according to the report.
Pedestrian incidents in Triangle in 2017
| City | Crashes | Fatalities | Injuries |
| Raleigh | 157 | 16 | 318 |
| Durham | 137 | 5 | 134 |
