By Craig T. Kojima, Star-Bulletin
A police officer examines the interior of a car involved
in a crash that injured two McKinley teens this morning.
The car in the rear was also involved.

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In guarded condition at Queen's

Helen Altonn and Jaymes K. Song
Star-Bulletin

Two McKinley High School students were struck by a car today in area where school officials have been requesting a traffic light for years.

The students, hit while crossing the street in front of the school, were in guarded condition at Queen's Hospital.

Police are still investigating whether the students were in the crosswalk when the accident occured at 7:30 a.m.

McKinley Principal Patricia Hamamoto said the two boys, one a freshman and the other a sophomore, were in the crosswalk. But one witness said the boys were not.

"Most kids sometimes go to McDonald's to pick something up," Hamamoto said. "I don't know if they were going from school or coming back to school.

"We heard over the radio that two of our kids were hit by a car -- call 911. We reacted immediately."

She said administrators and school security officers rushed to the street, and within minutes police and an ambulance arrived.

One boy is 16; the other's 16th birthday is tomorrow, Hamamoto said.

A late-model Acura Legend, heading eastbound on South King Street, struck the two boys, police traffic investigators said. One boy was then hit by a Nissan Pathfinder.

The driver of the Nissan said he tried to avoid one boy and then clipped another who staggered into his vehicle.

Fire crews this morning washed away the pool of blood where one boy landed.

Hamamoto said the school has been asking for a traffic light at the crosswalk for several years because early morning drivers on King Street have the sun in their eyes.

"Just this past September I asked for a traffic light through our department safety officer," she said. "He did some follow-up and was told by the city-county that they do not install traffic control lights mid-block."

Hamamoto said she plans to renew her request for traffic control and pedestrian lights with support from the Parent-Teacher-Students' Association and a petition from the student body.

"Because they're high school students doesn't make the danger any less than elementary school children," she said. "Even for regular pedestrians, cars going down King Street in the morning are blinded by the sun."

"It's so sad that we have to wait until somebody gets hurt before safety precautions that we've been asking for, that are so obvious, get addressed."

The accident closed two lanes of South King Street for more than two hours this morning, causing some congestion.