1 child killed, 1 hurt in southwest Las Vegas crash — VIDEO
A boy was killed and another was injured Monday after they were hit by a car while crossing a street in the southwest Las Vegas Valley, police said.
The boys, both 12, and a third child were crossing South Fort Apache Road from Faiss Park, near West Maule Avenue, at the time of the crash, Metropolitan Police Department Capt. Nick Farese said.
Two vehicles — one in the left lane and another in the middle lane — heading north on Fort Apache stopped about 3:40 p.m. to allow the boys to cross outside of a crosswalk north of Arby Avenue, a Metro release later said. The two boys crossed, but a 2006 Chevrolet HHR “was unable to stop and struck the two juveniles,” a release said.
The third child had stopped in the median while the others went ahead, Farese said.
One of the two boys was taken to University Medical Center with minor leg and foot injuries, while the second died at Southern Hills Hospital and Medical Center.
“This is what we get paid to do, but this is horrible,” said Farese, who oversees Metro’s traffic bureau. “We don’t want to go out on these, and never do we want to do this with a child and have to look at a parent in the hospital and tell them that their kid’s not coming home.”
Farese wasn’t sure whether there had been previous deadly crashes at the intersection.
The driver, a 22-year-old man, remained on scene and was cooperating with police. He passed field sobriety tests.
“Their cooperation is imperative to us being able to provide closure to the family on what happened,” Farese said.
The driver suffered a minor injury and a passenger also reported a minor injury, the release said.
It was too early in the investigation for police to know whether excessive speed or distracted driving played a role in the deadly crash, he said.
On Monday evening, the silver Chevrolet with a shattered window and damage to its front left side was parked in the northbound lanes. Small, orange evidence markers formed a trail from Arby to the car.
At the nearby park, some people held children against their chests while watching a police briefing to the media about the crash. A few children played on swings, others bounced a ball back and forth between them, and a little girl jumped through bubbles near a gazebo.
Faiss Middle School, 9525 W. Maule Ave., sits to the northwest of the park and the crash scene. One of the children struck by the car was a Faiss student, according to a an email sent to parents from principal Roger West on Monday night.
Crisis volunteers from the Trauma Intervention Program of Southern Nevada were asked to go to the crash scene and a hospital to help those affected.
The deceased child’s identity will be released by the Clark County coroner’s office. His death marks the 22nd traffic fatality investigated by Metro this year.
Contact Mike Shoro at mshoro@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5290. Follow @mike_shoro on Twitter.
Review-Journal staff writer Rio Lacanlale contributed to this report.
