Feb. 28, 2013-At 7:08 p.m. on Thursday night, five-year-old Morgan Maynard-Cook was walking home from a friend’s house with 13-year-old Zach Peterson, the friend’s uncle. KPTV reported that their walk was only a block and a half, and they walked down the shoulder of the road hand in hand.
“We got to her house and were waiting to cross the street and one car on the right stopped so she pulled her hand out of my hand and ran across the street,” said Peterson, “But the car on the left was speeding and she ran in front of it and it hit her. She flew up in the air and I couldn’t tell if she hit the mailboxes or not, so I picked her up off the ground and ran over to her house.”
“I set her on the porch and banged on the door, and when I set her down, I realized she was bleeding a lot,” says Zach Peterson.
The 69-year-old woman who was driving the car stayed on scene. At this time, investigators don’t believe there was drugs or alcohol involved, and speed does not seem to be a factor.
Police arrived on the scene moments later to find that Morgan was suffering from life threatening injuries. She was transported to the hospital, but later was pronounced dead.
“She was very smart, and she was just recently asking us about heaven,” says Connie Ruiz, Morgan’s mom.
“She was a very curious little girl, full of life, happy, she just wanted to run around and play and learn to be a kid.”
Morgan Maynard-Cook was the youngest of seven children and had just started kindergarten.
According to Ruiz, a 40-year-old woman was hit in that same intersection on Wednesday, and her oldest daughter was also hit on the same stretch of road in June of 2010. They both survived, but the family is hoping that the city will do something about the dangerous stretch of road that took their baby’s life.
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