VAN BUREN TOWNSHIP, Mich. – An 11-year-old boy was struck and killed on his way to school in Van Buren Township.
Police said the boy was struck at 6:20 a.m. Tuesday (Aug. 31) after his mother’s car broke down on Michigan Avenue near Denton Road.
“It made me come straight out of a deep sleep and made me sit straight up because there was so many police and fire and ambulance coming down our road. It was so loud it made me sit straight up,” a nearby resident said. “I knew something bad had happened.”
Police said the mother, a 34-year-old from Ypsilanti Township, was driving her 11-year-old son and 9-year-old daughter to school when the car broke down in a turnaround lane on Michigan Avenue.Police said the disabled car had no lights and all three people were outside of the car. They said a 61-year-old man tried to take a left and didn’t see the three of them or their vehicle.
The mother and daughter received cuts and scrapes from the impact. Police said the 11-year-old boy was running across Michigan Avenue when he was struck and killed by a GMC pickup truck.
Police believe the boy may have been running home to tell his father about the crash when he was hit.