BLACKSBURG, Va. (WDBJ/Gray News) – A Virginia family is pleading for drivers to slow down in the neighborhood after their child was seriously injured after a car hit him.
Jackie Rose was hit by a pizza delivery driver on Givens Lane in Blacksburg last week.
It’s a day the 5-year-old’s father and grandmother say they wish they could erase from his memory and theirs.
“I panicked and went out and said, stop, stop the car!” Martin Rose, Jackie’s father, said.
According to the father, it only took a split second for his little boy to be run over in front of their home.
“I just turned around and saw the pizza delivery dude on my kid,” he said.
Martin Rose said the driver had no idea he hit anything and was still trying to drive with Jackie under the car.
“That’s when I pulled Jackie out from underneath the car, and then repeatedly said for someone to call 911,” he said.
Jackie was flown to Roanoke Memorial Hospital’s trauma unit. He had cuts and bruises on his face and body with fractures in his pelvis and tailbone.
Currently, he can only walk short distances and uses a wheelchair for longer distances.
“I wouldn‘t wish this on any parent, grandparent, because it’s just awful,” Kristina Bryan, Jackie’s grandmother, said.
Bryan said she’s thankful her grandson is home now as the situation could have been a lot worse.
“It could have been a funeral we were having instead of a celebration of him being home,” she said.
The family is left with a blood-stained spot on the street as a daily reminder of what happened.
“I really wish there was a way we could make that spot disappear,” Bryan said.
Their message to everyone is to be considerate of others when behind the wheel.
“Everybody just needs to be mindful that this is where kids play, and to really slow down and be looking out for them,” she said.
Police say the driver stayed on scene and is cooperating with the investigation.
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