KSU student hit by car

PHILIP BOTTA

Photo by Philip Botta.

A silver Eclipse hit a female student outside the Music and Speech Building around 6 p.m. Tuesday night. A witness, who wants to remain anonymous, said he saw the girl “abruptly stop and fly into the air” after she hit the hood of the car. An ambulance took her to the hospital at about 6:20 p.m. Police said they would give more details of the incident later tonight.

Update:

Last night, an ambulance took Kelly Rienerth, freshman theatre studies major, to Robinson Memorial Hospital after she was hit by a silver Eclipse in the crosswalk outside the Music and Speech Building.

Police said another female student hit Rienerth at 6:02 p.m. Michquel Penn, community resource officer for the Kent State police, said the driver was OK after the collision, but Rienerth complained of injuries at the scene.

A Robinson Memorial spokeswoman said Rienerth arrived at the hospital’s emergency room at 6:40 p.m. last night, and that she has already been treated and released. Penn said further details and possible causes of the incident are still under investigation, and might not be released until tomorrow.

“We have had accidents like this on campus before,” Penn said. “Sometimes it’s the driver’s fault and others, it’s the pedestrian’s. There’s so much traffic around here and it’s something people need to be more careful about.”

Chris Hampton, a returning graduate student of hospitality and tour management, said he heard about yesterday’s incident. He said he thinks motorists in the Kent State area are more risky than they were about 10-years-ago when he was an undergraduate at Kent State.

“A lot of drivers treat the roads like a giant speed zone, which sort of surprises me,” Hampton said. “Even the cross walks here don’t get any respect by drivers.”

Contact Megan Wilkinson at [email protected].