Student hit by car at crosswalk near dorms

Alice Premeau, a freshman graphic design major, was hit by a car at the crosswalk near the dorms Wednesday night. She sustained minor injuries and was treated at the scene, said Chief of Public Safety Randy Burba. Photo by Kali Hoffman

A student was hit by a car at the crosswalk of Walnut Avenue and Grand Street by the dorms at about 10 p.m. April 11, Chief of Public Safety Randy Burba wrote in an email to The Panther.

Alice Premeau, the student who was hit, sustained minor injuries. She was treated and released by the Orange Fire Department at the scene after Public Safety arrived following the accident, Burba wrote.

Premeau, a freshman graphic design major, was walking back to the dorms from campus after studying for a test when she crossed the Walnut Avenue crosswalk, which has blinking lights if a pedestrian presses the button before crossing.

Because there were other people walking ahead of her, the lights were still on, but she was only halfway across when they stopped blinking, she said.

“I was almost to the sidewalk, when the guy – he was looking the other way I guess, he didn’t see me – hit me with the side of his car,” she said. “(It wasn’t) full on and it just knocked me over, and I scraped myself in a lot of places.”

Premeau isn’t pressing charges against the driver or Chapman because her injuries are minor, she said.

“I’ve heard that sometimes an injury can show up days after an accident, which I don’t think is going to happen, but if anything serious comes up, then I’ll ask (the driver) to pay for my health bills,” she said.

Premeau said that a woman at the scene called Public Safety for her before the fire department and police department arrived.

“(The woman) called Public Safety for me because I didn’t really know what to say,” Premeau said. “Like, ‘Hi, I just got hit by a car.’ That’s weird.”

The Orange Police Department was also called to the scene, and the investigation is now within its jurisdiction.

Two years ago, the university hired a crossing guard at the corner of Walnut Avenue and Grand Street when construction began for the Keck Center for Science and Engineering “due to the significant amount of the pedestrian and vehicular traffic in that intersection,” Kris Olsen, vice president of campus planning and operations, told The Panther in spring 2016.