3-year-old girl hit by police motorcycle after St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Downtown Pittsburgh

PITTSBURGH — A 3-year-old was hit by a police motorcycle after the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Downtown Pittsburgh.

Pittsburgh police said the girl was hit at Stanwix Street and Boulevard of the Allies just before 1:30 p.m.

Witnesses said the child jumped out of her stroller and into the bike’s path.

Police said the girl had some bruises, but she was alert and oriented when medics arrived. She was taken to UPMC Children’s Hospital in stable condition to be evaluated for any other injuries.

Bill Bara was live streaming the St. Patrick’s Day parade for his nearly 40,000 followers on his social media page, View Pittsburgh. He was watching the video back with Channel 11 for the first time later that day and said he never could have expected what happened next.

“Police were coming through just clearing the route as they always do,” he said. “Randomly out of nowhere, as soon as I got to 10 o’clock, boom. That kid just ran out of nowhere. To me, it was like a deer running out on you on a road. Just out of nowhere.”

Bara said the officer was in shock and distraught.

“The officer felt really bad,” he said. “I talked to him. He’s a grandfather. He kept mentioning it over and over again and you could just feel it for him.”

In the video, the officer is seen driving down the street past the stage and bleachers where witnesses said the girl was in her stroller moments before jumping out into the bike’s path.

People can be seen running across the street, picking the girl up off the ground.

“It was just panic on our side, like ‘Is everything okay?’ Bara said. “Luckily the kid seemed to be okay. Crying.”

At the time, Bara was with his 8-year-old son Hunter. He said he’s been going to the St. Patrick’s Day parade downtown for the last 20 years.

“This year, it was a lot of kids, families, really quiet actually, so for this to happen at the end, it shocked me,” Bara said. “Thank goodness it wasn’t worse.”

Boulevard of the Allies between Market Street and Stanwix Street was closed while the Collision Investigation Unit was on scene, police said.

The investigation is ongoing.

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