PENNSYLVANIA — Crossing guards are considered one of the most dangerous jobs, and the people we trust to protect our kids on their way to and from school are being hurt at alarming rates.
11 Investigates teamed up with our sister stations around the country and the Associated Press to compile more than 225 incidents of school crossing guards hit or killed on the job in the last decade.
That number is likely much higher because we learned no one tracks that information nationally, and only two states, Massachusetts and New Jersey, keep track locally.
In Pennsylvania, they are compiled into other police or crash reports, making them a needle in a haystack to find. In many cases, 11 Investigates couldn’t even obtain basic police reports. We had to file records requests, which took months and yielded few details.
“I didn’t have no feelings in my legs,” said Atlanta crossing guard Virgil Woods. “My head was hurting. Blood was running down my arm.”
He’s back on the job after a brain bleed, and the driver who hit him got a traffic ticket.
Becky Evans from Ohio is still learning to walk and talk again.
“I still see the headlights coming at me,” Evans said.
The punishment for the driver? A $48 fine.
In Susie Turner’s case, it was a drunk driver.
“Cracked my head open, broke my shoulder, my leg, my pelvis,” Turner said. “It was that moment I believed in the afterlife.”
The driver who hit her walked away with an ankle monitor and didn’t spend a day in jail.
In 2020, a crossing guard in Philadelphia was critically injured after she was struck by a drunk driver who blew through a red light. Joseph Herron was sentenced to jail time and probation.
And you might remember crossing guard Ms. Rita. She was hit while on the job at a busy intersection near Sto-Rox High School in 2015. The driver was ticketed for failing to stop at a stop sign.
Our investigation scoured news reports and social media to compile nationwide data on crossing guards who were hit. We contacted law enforcement for all of the accidents and obtained police records and outcomes for 180.
More than 70% of those drivers who hit crossing guards faced no serious charges. Dozens didn’t even get a ticket.
Our investigation found that at least 40 of the crashes involving crossing guards were hit-and-run accidents. Law enforcement was never able to identify at least six of the drivers who fled the scene.
In 2016, a driver in Philadelphia intentionally rammed a crossing guard with his car after she yelled at him. Nine years later, the driver still hasn’t been found.
Veteran crossing guards protect kids at one of the busiest intersections in Pittsburgh, Beechwood Boulevard and Phillips Avenue.
That’s where we interviewed Donna McManus, who oversees 65 crossing guards in the City of Pittsburgh.
“We’re the people who are on the frontlines,” McManus tells 11 Investigates. “We’re the people stepping out first to make sure the coast is clear.”
She says her team has to be careful to watch for drivers rushing to get somewhere, often while distracted.
“I know my people daily have close calls,” McManus added.
So, next time you’re driving through a school zone, think about them and the children they put their lives on the line to protect.
“Put your phone down,” McManus said. “You are a small moment away from a tragedy, and we don’t want to have that here in the city of Pittsburgh.”
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