A 5-year-old girl was hit by a car and critically injured walking to the school bus Wednesday morning at 19th and Harwood streets.
LORI PILGER / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Wednesday, May 23, 2007 7:00 pm
While her mother and fellow students watched, a 5-year-old girl was hit by a car and critically injured while walking to her school bus Wednesday morning at 19th and Harwood streets.
A neighbor said she was on her porch when she saw a silver Taurus speed by on Harwood as Prescott Elementary kindergartner Molly Lanham got out of her mother’s van and started to cross the street just west of the school.
“And the next thing I see her flying in the air and everything in her hands is everywhere,” said the neighbor, who asked not to be identified. “And he just kept driving.”
Rattled, she rushed inside to call 911.
Police said 21-year-old Douglas Maloley of Waverly reported a car-jacking minutes after the 8:30 a.m. crash. They believe it was a false report and, a short time later, found his Ford Taurus behind a business at 16th and South streets.
Soon after, officers found Maloley nearby and arrested him on suspicion of leaving the scene of an injury accident and false reporting, said Administrative Police Officer Rich Mackey. Maloley was in jail Wednesday evening. He will have to appear in court and a judge will have to set bond before he could be released.
Mackey said the Taurus was westbound on Harwood when it hit the girl. The school bus was coming down 19th Street to pick up Prescott students being bused to classes at Abbott Sports Complex while the school is renovated.
Mackey said Lincoln Fire & Rescue arrived within four minutes of the call. Police got there nine minutes after that.
Molly was taken to BryanLGH Medical Center West and later flown by helicopter to Creighton University Medical Center in Omaha.
Mackey said her condition, although still critical, had stabilized by Wednesday afternoon. She was being treated for a broken leg and an internal head injury.
In a letter to Prescott parents, Principal Paul Canny said he talked with the girl’s mother Wednesday afternoon.
“She reported the child was in critical condition. The long-term outlook for the child is positive, although she will have a long recovery,” he wrote.
Her parents, Amy and Todd Lanham, were at the hospital in Omaha and could not be reached Wednesday.
Canny rode the school bus with students headed home Wednesday, and the route was diverted around the scene.
Lincoln Public Schools Superintendent Susan Gourley said the LPS Crisis Response Team met with the girl’s classmates and with students who ride with her on the bus.
The crisis response team was there for teachers, too, she said.
“Their hearts were breaking today,” Gourley said.
Down the block from the accident, Maloley’s ex-girlfriend, 16-year-old Brandy Peters of Eagle sat with her mom and twin sister. She said Maloley often drove by the house on Harwood where she sometimes stays.
Peters said she broke up with him before Thanksgiving, but he kept trying to talk to her, kept getting his friends to text message her trying to convince her to talk to him, and he kept driving by the house.
While she and her family were sleeping Wednesday morning, she said, a man at her house saw Maloley drive by right before he heard the crash.
By late morning, Molly’s pink backpack, a blanket and her shoes lay on Harwood Street with markers around them as police documented the scene.
Reach Lori Pilger at 473-7237 or lpilger@journalstar.com. Journal Star writer Zach Pluhacek contributed to this story.