Neighbors Question Road Safety After 5-Year-Old Hit, Killed In Millcreek
Feb 24, 2020, 9:29 PM | Updated: Nov 3, 2023, 4:13 pm
MILLCREEK, Utah – A day after a 5-year-old boy died after being struck by a vehicle, neighbors are questioning the safety of the narrow road where he was hit.
“This road is a death trap and I’m surprised it hasn’t happened quicker,” said longtime resident D.J. Miller.
Miller said he and his neighbors have been asking for years for sidewalks and stop signs to be installed along Neffs Lane in the area of 2500 East in Millcreek.
“There’s kids going up and down this street continually,” Miller added. “It was going to happen.”
A spokesperson for Unified Police Department said the boy and his older brother were riding bikes and scooters Sunday evening on Neffs Lane.
“It was dark at the time this happened,” said Detective Kevin Mallory. “It’s fairly poorly lit up there.”
A vehicle traveling west approached the boys around 8:15 p.m.
“As she was approaching the boys she had seen the older one and had adjusted her vehicle to avoid him and didn’t see the 5-year-old,” Mallory explained.
The boy, whose name was not released, passed away at the scene. The driver — a woman who knows the boy’s family and lives in the same neighborhood — is fully cooperating with the investigation, according to Mallory.
“It’s looking like this is just a very unfortunate and very tragic accident,” Mallory said.
Those who live nearby told KSL TV they have safety concerns about Neffs Lane because it’s sometimes used as a through street to get from upper parts of the neighborhood to 2300 East, with cars traveling too fast around blind corners.
Crisis counselors were stationed at Upland Terrance Elementary School, where the boy was a kindergarten student, according to a spokesperson for Granite School District.
“It’s been an emotional day for us,” said neighbor Bethany Scheuermann after she and her three children walked by a makeshift memorial of flowers on the side of the road.
If Neffs Lane can be made safer, Scheuermann hoped the neighborhood can come together and fix it.
“We bike almost every day and it’s pretty sobering,” she said. “I just wish them peace and happiness.”
Neighbors expressed concern for the boy’s family as well as the driver of the car that struck him.
“I’m heartbroken. My wife’s heartbroken. I’m sure the whole neighborhood’s heartbroken,” Miller said. “You’ve lost a child and you have a person — a good person — that’s living with it and it’s not easy to live with.”
