Dearborn police survey the scene of a traffic accident that included two vehicles and five bicyclists. Police said none of the people involved suffered life threatening injuries.
By J. PATRICK PEPPER
Times-Herald Newspapers
DEARBORN — A group of young children, their father and grandfather were hit by a pickup truck on Tuesday while waiting on their bicycles for a traffic light on the south median of the Telegraph-Oxford intersection.
The children, ages 4, 6 and 8, suffered non-life-threatening injuries and were transported by ambulance to a local hospital for treatment, police said. The father and grandfather also received treatment for non-life-threatening injuries. All are expected to make full recoveries.
Dearborn Police Sgt. Doug Topolski said that 40-year-old Kristin Mandernach of Dearborn was issued a ticket for disregarding a traffic control device, which carries a maximum fine of $160 and three points to her record.
According to witnesses, Mandernach was headed east on Oxford when she ran a red light, causing a Dodge Ram pickup truck headed south on Telegraph to smash into her. The impact sent the truck and Mandernach’s Ford Flex skidding toward the intersection, where the bicyclists were waiting to cross.
Mandernach suffered what police described as non-life-threatening injuries and was taken out of her car on a stretcher by paramedics. She also had as passengers a 3-year-old and 4-year-old, who were not injured. Police didn’t say if they were her children.
The driver of the pickup walked away from the accident.
A crowd of pedestrian onlookers gathered at the accident scene. As emergency responders shuttled back and forth between the damaged vehicles, most people focused on the mangled bicycles jammed underneath the front end of the truck.
“My God, I don’t know how anyone could survive something like this,” said a woman who had pulled her car into a parking lot nearby to get a closer look.