Jacksonville, FL : 4-year-old child injured after being struck by a car near Victory Park in the Fort Caroline neighborhood on Tuesday afternoon, June 16, 2015

A 4-year-old boy was hit by a car Tuesday in Arlington after he ran onto Fort Caroline Road from Victory Park, according to the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office.

Vannette Wilder was a witness at the accident and tried to console both the mother and the driver after the boy was hit.

The boy's mother said she was watching him run around the park when he suddenly changed direction and ran toward the open gate of the park. The mother ran after the boy but did not catch him in time.

The boy ran across two westbound lanes and onto the center median of Fort Caroline Road. As the child crossed the median, the 69-year-old driver of a Pontiac Trans Am traveling east saw the boy and slammed on his brakes.

The car slowed considerably, police said, but it still struck the child at a low speed, knocking the boy onto the roadway, where his head hit the pavement, suffering a serious head injury.

The boy was taken to UF Health by Jacksonville Fire Rescue with a life-threatening head injury.

Because the child ran into the roadway, the driver is not facing any charges, police said. The driver was not injured in the crash.

Wilder lives near Victory Park and as soon as she heard that a child had been hit by a car, she was just praying that it wasn't one of her seven grandchildren.

"I thought it was my grandbaby because she usually tries to get out of her stroller," Wilder said. "I jumped out the truck and I started running to the streets, but when I got there that's what I noticed, a four-year-old boy on the ground."

It was at this point that Wilder saw paramedics, the driver of the car that hit the boy and the little boy's mom.

"I tried to console her and calm her down because even though the baby was on the ground, I knew that he could still hear mom's voice," Wilder said.

Wilder also said that an accident like this could have easily been prevented and something needs to be done to keep it from happening again.

"I think the city needs to put a better lock on this gate because she's 5-years-old and she can go and push the gate right out. That shouldn't be like that," Wilder said. "Anyone can push the gate and open it. It doesn't have a lock on it. It's just a chain that closes the gate, but it needs to be a lock."

Wilder said that city workers came out to inspect the gate. They said that there was supposed to be a lock placed on the gate Tuesday, but one still has not been placed on the gate.

Source :
4-year-old hit by car in Fort Caroline area