3 children hurt as car crashes into Northside Elementary playground in Chapel Hill

Update: “Chapel Hill police charge driver in crash that injured 3 elementary school children”

An adult and two children were taken to the hospital Tuesday afternoon after a driver crashed into the Northside Elementary School playground in Chapel Hill, police reported.

The crash happened around 4 p.m. Tuesday when roughly 20 5- to 9-year-old children were on the playground during the Community Schools afterschool program, police said in a news release.

The driver crashed through a fence and hit the playground equipment, injuring three children, police said. One child was treated at the scene for minor injuries, they said.

The driver and two other children were taken to UNC Hospitals. Information about their conditions were not immediately available.

Chapel Hill police are investigating, they said.

Chapel Hill-Carrboro Schools spokesman Andy Jenks said the district is keeping “our staff and families informed of other support and arrangements that we’ll have in place as a result of this incident.”

“At the moment, our thoughts are with the students and families of all involved, as well as the staff members and students who witnessed what happened,” Jenks said.

Car in the playground

Northside neighbor Hudson Vaughan was near the school when he heard the crash.

“There was a big bang, and I heard some kids yell,” Vaughan said. “I started to walk up to it immediately to see what was going on, but it kind of died down and I thought it must have been OK, like a dumpster falling off a truck or something. A few minutes later, we walked back up and there were ambulances and stuff there.”

He saw a car against a structure in the playground, just off the side of a parking lot in a recess on the western side of the school. The airbags had deployed, he said.

“I just really hope everybody’s OK, especially the kids,” he said. “It was just horrifying.”

Whitney Robinson, another Northside neighbor, arrived at the school just before 4:30 p.m. Tuesday to pick up her son. A line of cars was growing outside the school, and the teachers were sending parents around the building to pick up their children. Superintendent Nyah Hamlett was at the school, she said.

“It sounds like the staff moved fast. They said they had moved some kids to the cafeteria or the gym,” Robinson said. “Some of the staff I saw seemed shaken up. It must have been very scary for them.”

The helicopter that continued to hover over the neighborhood late Tuesday evening after the scene was cleared “added insult to injury,” said Robinson’s husband Louie Rivers.

“The kids just went through something. Now we have a helicopter hovering over our houses. It’s hard to put the kids down,” he said.

Chapel Hill pedestrian safety

It was the second crash near downtown Chapel Hill on Tuesday afternoon.

The first, involving a bicyclist and a car, was reported shortly after noon on West Franklin Street, between Roberson and Graham streets. Chapel Hill police said the cyclist was taken to UNC Hospitals but did not provide additional information about their injuries.

And it was the second crash involving children and cars in Chapel Hill since Dec. 31.

Chapel Hill police charged Norma Martin, 69, of Durham, earlier this month with failing to yield to two middle-school students who were in the crosswalk in front of Phillips Middle School on North Estes Drive.

Martin was driving east toward Franklin Street when she hit the girls with her car around 5:30 p.m. on New Year’s Eve, police said. The girls were taken to the hospital, where one was treated and released a few days later. The other remains hospitalized after suffering life-threatening injuries.

The wreck has sparked renewed calls for the town to do something about speeding drivers who ignore pedestrian crosswalks and safety. The town has increased its police and pedestrian safety patrols and plans to start construction on bike lanes, sidewalks and more visible, signalized pedestrian crossings on Estes Drive this spring.

This story was originally published January 25, 2022 at 5:19 PM.

Tammy Grubb

The News & Observer

919-829-8926

Tammy Grubb has written about Orange County’s politics, people and government since 2010. She is a UNC-Chapel Hill alumna and has lived and worked in the Triangle for over 30 years.