HIGHLANDS RANCH, Colo. -- A 16-year-old Highlands Ranch teenager riding his scooter home from school says he was hit by a car and the driver didn't stop to help him when it happened last Friday afternoon.
On social media and in person, neighbors ranted this is just one more example of a serious problem: Traffic from the schools on Wildcat Reserve Parkway use their neighborhood as a turnaround zone.
“I was just riding home from school on my scooter,” said Aaron Graham, 16, who said he didn't hear the car coming until it hit him from behind, and he watched as the driver just kept going. “I chucked my scooter at the back of her car as hard as I could as she was driving off.”
Graham’s mother, Michelle, took him to the hospital and called police, but she said they seemed to think he was exaggerating.
“You left a kid in the road. You hit him and you left him in the road,” she said, pointing to social media posts about similar incidents in response to this one.
“This is really common here.”
Mandy Henry lives nearby and said she has almost been hit several times on her daily walks.
“Cars are just flying around. They wouldn't watch for us. One day, somebody almost sideswiped my stroller while I had him in it,” said Henry. "We have our own neighborhoods signs here, our neighbors here do that when our kids are outside because people come around so fast.”
The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office reports 265 hit-and-run crashes so far this year, on track to be down from 290 last year.
A spokeswoman said they are investigating Graham’s report and would like to speak to the driver, but they said "there were discrepancies with the initial reporting."
But neighbors like Henry said they believe it happened because it’s so busy in that area when school lets out.
Graham said the driver was in a white Cadillac Escalade.
