OLATHE, Kan. — An afternoon of fun took a horrific turn on Sunday when a two-year-old boy was hit by car in a neighborhood near 135th Street and Blackbob in Olathe.
A family friend told FOX 4 News the child was in stable condition Sunday night but took a turn for the worse on Monday.
Olathe police said around 4 p.m. Sunday the boy ran into the middle of 138th Street and was hit by a car.
Brandy Smith, a family friend, said the child and his mother were visiting her when they turned around and he was gone. A minute later Smith said the mother called for her son and they found him laying in the middle of the street with an open gash in his head.
“I could see his skull,” Smith said. “It pretty big, at least an inch wide.”
She said it went from an ordinary day of children playing, to a harrowing ordeal in an instant.
“All of the kids were rolling down the hill, playing and running with the dog, then all of a sudden like a second, he was just laying there,” Smith said.
Smith, who is a nurse, and the boy’s mother immediately ran to his side.
“Seemed a little unconscious because his eyes were kind of rolling. A couple of my neighbors came out, was holding his head, she was holding on to his hands … because his hands kind of started flipping around like he was having little seizures,” Smith recalled.
Smith said the child has a broken leg and doctors at Children’s Mercy were able to close the gash in his head.
She said the little boy has a lot of people pulling for him and she hopes he makes a full recovery.
Olathe police said the 43-year-old driver was not cited for the crash.
“Everyone should take that extra precaution,” Sgt. Brian Hill with Olathe Police Department said. “Parents of children, drivers out there, to know that children are going to be out and they’re going to be playing, and everyone needs to be aware.”