Nanaimo mom recounts close-call involving son in marked crosswalk  

• Share on Facebook
• Share on Bluesky
• Share on X
• Copy Link

The Frank Ney student was crossing from this point after initiating the pedestrian light. (Image Credit: Ian Holmes/NanaimoNewsNOW)

Disaster averted

Nanaimo mom recounts close-call involving son in marked crosswalk

1h ago

wildfire fight

Climate change is eroding typical nighttime breaks in wildfire activity, study says

3h ago

Island Clash

Clippers to face Capitals in round two of BCHL playoffs

5h ago

The honking motorist, Anderson said, prompted her son to scamper back from the fast-approaching path of the westbound white sedan.

Anderson said one of the car’s tires went over her son’s toes, while the side mirror clipped his stomach. 

“If that lady hadn’t honked his horn and he hadn’t have jumped back, she would have taken him out.” 

Anderson said the witness, who happens to be a nurse who checked over the boy on scene before he walked home, reported what occurred to Frank Ney Elementary School staff. 

The witness relayed the driver, estimated to be between 60 and 70 years old, noticed the boy at the last second, braced for impact, but didn’t stop and proceeded travelling at roughly 70 kilometres an hour in the 50 kilometre per hour zone.

Witnesses were unable to provide police a license plate number of the offending vehicle, while Anderson said she reached out to the neighbouring church to see if it potentially has footage of the incident.

Anderson, a 10-year resident of the local area, said unsafe driving is nothing new for the area of Hammond Bay Rd.  

“We were here before we had the lit crosswalk there, which has helped out a lot now, but even still clearly we see drivers speeding all the time, not yielding at the crosswalk, it happens very frequently there.” 

Anderson hopes spreading awareness of her son’s potentially life-threatening ordeal creates conversations for motorists to not treat driving as an afterthought or race to get to their destinations. 

She theorizes perhaps extensive construction work on Hammond Bay Rd. has motorists more impatient than usual. 

“If you hit anybody, and especially a child, to just keep driving that’s shocking and extremely disappointing.” 

Hammond Bay Rd. has a long history of poor driving leading to serious injuries and deaths. 

In March 2019, a 17-year-old Dover Bay Secondary School student was killed by a careless driver using a marked crosswalk on Hammond Bay Rd. and Venture Pl.

In September 2024, an Ecole Hammond Bay parent was pinned under a turning van in a marked crosswalk at Morningside Dr.

Most recently, an uninsured motorist sped over a Hammond Bay Rd. sidewalk in early March, crashing through the backyard of a Leslie Cres. property.

The City of Nanaimo is currently reconfiguring the Hammond Bay at Rutherford and Turner Rd. intersections as part of more broad surface-level changes to create safer conditions for non-vehicular road users, as well as underground utility work.

A roundabout will also be constructed in the near future on Hammond Bay at Brickyard Rd. to better control and reduce vehicle speeds, as well as provide safer options for non-vehicular users.

Subscribe to our daily news wrap. Local news delivered to your email inbox every evening. Stay up to date on everything Nanaimo and Oceanside.

info@nanaimonewsnow.com

Follow us on: Twitter (X) | Bluesky | Facebook