Three siblings of elementary-school age were injured, two of them seriously, when they were hit by a car as they crossed a street in Changhua County on Thursday evening, county police said.
Hemei Precinct police officer Lin Shih-shing (林世行) said yesterday that the two sisters and their brother were hit by a car driven by a 73-year-old man surnamed Hsiao (蕭) at 6:21pm when crossing an intersection in the county’s Shengang Township (伸港).
The heartbeats of the two sisters, who are in the third and fourth grades, stopped following the incident, but were later restarted by rescue personnel.
Photo: CNA
Show Chwan Memorial Hospital said the older sister appears to have serious brain damage. She was completely unresponsive, indicated by her score of 3 on the Glasgow coma scale, and was being treated in the pediatric intensive care unit.
The hospital said it had informed the girl’s parents and the school’s principal that the girl’s condition was poor.
The other sister, being cared for at Changhua Christian Hospital, had low blood pressure and remained intubated in the facility’s pediatric intensive care unit because her condition was unstable.
Only the younger brother escaped serious injury, police said. He had abrasions on his left foot, and was discharged later on Thursday night.
Hsiao was operating the vehicle without a license, Lin said, but a breath alcohol test was negative, and police were still trying to establish how fast he was going at the time of the incident and whether the children followed traffic signs and signals.
The Changhua County Government said Changhua County Commissioner Wang Huei-mei (王惠美) went to the hospitals after hearing about the children and gave the parents NT$20,000 to help them get through their ordeal.
Wang also directed the county’s Department of Social Affairs and Department of Education to provide any necessary assistance in providing care because the children were from a low-income household.
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