Lower Burrell crossing guard recovering after being struck by car

A crossing guard is recovering after being hit by a car last week in front of Bon Air Elementary School in Lower Burrell.

The crossing guard, Bill Thomey, a member of Lower Burrell police’s auxiliary service, was directing traffic shortly after 8 a.m. Oct. 20 in a painted crosswalk in a school zone when the incident occurred, city police Chief John Marhefka said.

Wearing his florescent yellow traffic jacket and gloves, Thomey was talking to another crossing guard via radio about an incoming bus. Thomey stood in the turning lane in the middle of Leechburg Road at the school crossing in front of Bon Air Elementary.

He turned to see if any children needed help crossing.

In a split second, “there was a car on top of me,” Thomey said. “He just plowed into me. If I would have been crossing a child at that time, they would have been killed for sure.”

Trying not to get pinned under the car, Thomey pushed himself into the air. He hit the hood and fell to its side. He felt his right leg buckle.

“I was stunned but still aware of what was going on,” he said. He still had the other crossing guard on the radio and told him to call an ambulance and the police.

Thomey wasn’t sure his leg was broken but, “it was super painful and it didn’t feel right.”

He was grateful to the witnesses who came to his aid and the ambulance that took him to a hospital.

He suffered a broken tibia and torn ligaments and underwent surgery Oct. 21. He is using a walker, hopping on his left leg. He can’t drive for five weeks.

“The sad part for me is taking care of my mother, who is 100 years old,” Thomey said.

He struggles to get off the couch and balance himself when his mother needs help with something.

“I’m not able to tend to all of her needs, and that has diminished some of her care — that is depressing.”

Thomey, 76, who has been working for the city’s police auxiliary service for more than a decade, doesn’t know when and if he can return to work.

“Some people fly through and don’t care they are driving through a school zone,” he said. “You see people with phones in their hands, eating their breakfast or doing something, and they aren’t always paying attention.”

The school zone speed limit is 15 mph, while Leechburg Road’s speed limit at other times is 35 mph, he said.

“We risk our lives every day we are out there, and we are there to protect the children, whether they are crossing the street or in buses.”

The incident still is under investigation, Marhefka said. Police have not released information on the driver or potential charges as of Monday afternoon.

“We ask the public to use caution when traveling through the school zones in the morning and afternoon,” Marhefka said.