Crime & Safety

School Gets Traffic Officers This Morning, but No Crossing Guards

The site of Tuesday's fatal accident was under watch from police and concerned parents.

Traffic officers were out in force today near a Hollywood middle school campus where a woman was fatally struck by a truck while crossing a street with her 9-year-old daughter.

The girl was hospitalized for treatment of minor injuries, but she was expected to be released later today, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

Marleni Edith Barrera, 42, of Los Angeles, was declared dead at a hospital shortly after the accident about 7:45 a.m. Tuesday, said coroner's Assistant Chief Ed Winter.

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The pair were in a crosswalk in the 1300 block of Bronson Avenue near Le Conte Middle School when they were struck by the southbound truck, police said.

The trucker, who stopped and was questioned by police, was released pending the outcome of the traffic investigation. According to broadcast reports, he told police he simply did not see Barrera and her daughter.

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Barrera was accompanying her daughter to Citizens of the World Charter School, which is on the campus of Le Conte Middle School.

Erica Lepping of the Citizens of the World Charter School said the mother “heroically saved her child.”

“Our school is committed to doing everything we can to help the family and all of our children get through this difficult time,” she said. “We are setting up opportunities for the community to support the family in need, providing crisis counselors to all of our children and working with police and the city to ensure that all measures are taken to enable students and their families to have the safest possible routes to school. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family.”

Commuters told news crews that morning traffic around the neighborhood was typically congested, and that parents had been seeking to have a crossing guard assigned to the location. See concerned parents speak out here.

A Los Angeles Unified School district official said pedestrian crossing signs had been recently put up in the school zone and curbs painted in the area. District officials also said  they planned to meet with city officials today to see about getting a regular crossing guard.

--City News Service


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