COLORADO SPRINGS — The Doherty High School community in Colorado Springs is mourning the death of a student who was struck and killed while using the crosswalk across Barnes Rd Wednesday morning.
Classes were canceled for the day at the high school, but are scheduled to resume this morning. Crisis counselors will be available to talk with students and staff for the rest of the week.
While authorities have not released any information about the student, people on campus are talking about the loss and memories.
"You still feel really empty inside," said the high school's women's tennis assistant coach John Cordasco. He says the student was an exchange student from Italy. "She was a very vibrant, happy, joyful individual, she just brought a lot of happiness to the team," says Cordasco.
Cordasco bought flowers to put on each post of the intersection where she was killed. "I can drive by here and see those flowers up and know that our good friend is well thought of and we're going to miss her," said Cordasco.
Multiple students have been hit crossing Barnes Rd within the past year, including a female hit in April 2022 and a boy struck in October 2022.
The flower shop owner across the street saw police tape and had a bad feeling. "(I) figured what had happened, probably a student been hit...at the time because it's such a bad intersection," says My Floral Shop owner Brian Wilgus.
This deadly crash raises a lot of safety concerns. There is a crosswalk for the campus to the west of the main building along Barnes Rd where the speed limit is 35 miles an hour. There isn't a school zone in front of the campus.
The Colorado Springs traffic engineer said most high schools don't have 20 miles per hour school zones. He told News5 it's been in discussion but there are no concrete plans. Barnes Rd in front of the school is a 6-lane street with a good amount of traffic between Austin Bluffs and Powers Blvd.
On Wednesday morning, Doherty High School Principal Lana Flenniken wrote, "It is with great sadness we relay that one student was hit on Barnes Road and has passed away. We will release more information and a plan for the remainder of the week as soon as we are able."
So far, police have not released any information about the driver involved in Wednesday's crash. We're told the driver did stay at the scene. It is unknown if they could face charges.
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