The victim was transported to the Cooper Hospital trauma center with an open leg fracture Friday night. She is expected to recover fully.
By Matt Skoufalos | December 7, 2019
December 8, 5:36 p.m. – This story has been updated to include eyewitness accounts from a first responder to the incident.
A Collingswood woman was taken to the hospital with serious injuries after being struck by a car while crossing the White Horse Pike Friday night.
The accident occurred just before 6 p.m. at the intersection of Newton Avenue.
According to Collingswood Police Chief Kevin Carey, the woman allegedly “failed to check her surroundings prior to attempting to run across the White Horse Pike,” and was not in the marked crosswalk when she did.
Investigators reported that the victim may have been intoxicated; the driver was not suspected of having been impaired, Carey said. No field sobriety test was administered to either of them.
The driver of the vehicle remained on the scene after the collision and is cooperating with the investigation, the chief said. He added that the victim is in stable condition today, and is expected to make a full recovery.
Collingswood resident Doreen Miller was on the porch of her Newton Avenue home when she heard a boom she said “was so loud I thought it was two cars.
“I just started running,” Miller said. “The girl was running and hopping and screaming. I said, ‘What got hit?’ because it didn’t sound like a person. She kept screaming, ‘It was me, it was me!”
Oaklyn Fire Lieutenant Andrew Ramos, who was traveling down the White Horse Pike from Route 130, said the collision happened a few car-lengths ahead of him in the roadway. Ramos said the victim was clipped by a silver sports coupe while running across the Pike at the Newton Avenue intersection.
“When she got struck, I saw her roll into the street,” he said. “As she stood up, she started screaming for help, so I pulled over.”
Ramos radioed the Camden County 9-1-1 dispatch from his vehicle. When he got out of the car, he heard Miller screaming for a tourniquet.
“I was concerned for her femoral artery,” Miller said.
Ramos didn’t have one, so he used his belt as a makeshift tourniquet. When a Haddon Township Police Officer arrived on the scene, the officer retrieved a proper tourniquet from his car, and the two applied it to the victim.
Miller’s brother retrieved a towel to cover the victim’s leg; the victim, a mother of two, gave Miller her phone and asked to call her children. They all remained with her until Collingswood firefighter-EMTs, who had been mustering nearby at the Scottish Rite for the holiday Parade of Lights, arrived on the scene.
The victim was transported to the Cooper Hospital orthopedic trauma center. Ramos continued to his detail at the Oaklyn Fire House.
Miller disputed the idea that the victim seemed intoxicated. She believes the intersection is a dangerous one for pedestrians, citing high traffic volumes, darkened streetlights, and limited visibility from signage and landscaping at the mouth of Newton Lake Park.
“You don’t play at this intersection,” she said. “There’s accidents there all the time. I don’t even cross the pike at certain hours. Something needs to happen and stop this.”
Among suggestions for improving safety at the intersection, Miller said she’d like to establish turning lanes, add signage warning drivers of the accident risks, and adjust the park signage so it’s easier for everyone to see.
“There are safety things they can do there,” she said. “I’ve been living here for 25 years, and the amount of accidents I see here, it needs to start somewhere. [Last night’s] was by far one of the worst ones.”
