PITTSBURGH — “One minute everything is good, and then the next second everything changes,” said Leah Pugh.
Pugh shared pictures with Channel 11 News of her 12-year-old son after a car hit him earlier this week when he and his sister were leaving Magee Playground in Greenfield.
“He said that when he went to cross there wasn’t any traffic and then all of the sudden, out of nowhere, there was a car,” Pugh explained.
Pugh said her son’s arm is fractured, his ear will need surgery and his face and body are covered in bruises.
She is grateful he is alive and says this could have been far worse.
“I’m not the expert on what to put there, so I can’t say, but I do know that there needs to be something done,” Pugh said.
Neighbors said Magee Playground sits on a blind curve, and just over the hillside is a field, a pool, and a community center. They explained that daily this area is filled with kids, families, and seniors.
“My first thought was that could have been any of our kids. We are all super relieved that he was injured and not killed, but it is still terrifying for him and his family. It could have been avoided,” said Greenfield PTO member and mom, Marianne Holohan.
A petition circulating throughout the community trying to get something done about speeding now has hundreds of signatures.
“We would like to see some sort of dedicated pedestrian walkway here like the ones they’ve built up over in Oakland or the East End,” Holohan said.
Channel 11 asked if the city or city council has responded to the requests.
Holohan told us this: “We’ve asked the city repeatedly to install traffic calming, and we haven’t gotten anything yet.”
“My son’s accident is part of a bigger issue,” Pugh said.
The Mayor’s Office tells Channel 11 News they are looking into the matter. While City Council Representative Barb Warwick, who represents the area, said she hopes that the city and the Department of Mobility and Infrastructure (DOMI) put traffic calming measures in next year’s budget.
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