A female Boston University student was injured and taken to a hospital after being struck by a car on Commonwealth Avenue near West Campus just before midnight Saturday.
The student was crossing the street near the Fitness and Recreation Center by St. Paul’s Street when she was hit by the car, which did not appear to be speeding, according to witnesses.
Although the student was not walking on a crosswalk, a car in the first lane of traffic stopped to let her pass, but the driver of the car in the middle lane did not see her and hit her, BU spokesman Colin Riley said. She was taken to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, he said.
After the car hit the student, she lay in the street bleeding from the mouth as many people rushed to her aid.
“We crossed with the light, and she crossed against the light,” said College of Arts and Sciences junior Courtney McCabe, who had just crossed Commonwealth Avenue and was walking down Buick Street with her roommate when they witnessed the incident. “We heard the car hit her and it was like slow motion. She was lying there and a whole bunch of people rushed over.”
The victim did not get up but remained conscious and was able to move her legs and hands, McCabe said.
“She definitely showed signs of being relatively alert,” she said, “but she had blood coming out of her mouth, so she hit her head pretty hard.”
McCabe said she and other students who witnessed the accident called 9-1-1, and the police responded quickly.
Chloe Gotsis, a 2007 College of Communication graduate and former Daily Free Press reporter who witnessed the incident from the car behind the one that hit the student, said the car was not moving at a particularly high speed.
Gotsis’s father, who is a doctor, pulled the car over to offer help and said the victim was speaking but had blood dripping from her mouth and appeared to have a bump on her head.
Witnesses said the male driver who hit the victim got out of his car and tried to help her.
About five police cars, two fire trucks and an ambulance arrived at the scene shortly after the accident and blocked off Commonwealth Avenue, diverting traffic down nearby Buick Street, witnesses said.
The Boston Police Department could not disclose more details last night because the incident is under investigation, said officer Jack Devine.
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