A five-year-old child was struck by a car when he was crossing a crosswalk after the Canada Day fire works on Wednesday (July1).
At about 11 p.m., as people were leaving the Central Park area, the five-year-old boy was hit by a sedan travelling eastbound on Voght Street.
An adult he was walking with attempted to grab him before he ran into the crosswalk, but was unsuccessful, RCMP Cpl. Kathy Ecklund said.
“The young fellow darted across the crosswalk to go across Voght Street,” Ecklund said.
Ecklund said the driver didn’t see the child running across the crosswalk and his vehicle struck the boy, but didn’t run him over.
The child was taken via ambulance to the Nicola Valley Hospital to be treated for non-life threatening injuries, she said.
The boy’s injuries appeared to be scrapes and cuts, Ecklund said, but to be sure he was taken to Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops from the Merritt hospital for a body scan.
Ecklund said speed and alcohol are not factors in this incident, but the RCMP’s investigation is ongoing.
Charges are pending against the driver of the sedan, who is a local man.
At this point, the investigation is proceeding under the Motor Vehicle Act, Ecklund said.
She said it’s believed a vehicle travelling westbound had stopped for the child, who was the only person in the crosswalk at the time.
