Police seek information on Subaru that struck boy on bicycle in Penn Borough

State police are looking for the driver of a white Subaru car that hit an 8-year-old boy riding a bicycle Tuesday evening in Penn Borough and then fled.

Trooper Steve Limani said the driver got out of the car, removed the bicycle from in front of it and left the scene.

“It’s a shame, you wouldn’t think that somebody would hit a child on a bike and then leave, it’s kind of hard to believe that something like that would happen,” he said.

The boy was discharged late Tuesday after being treated at UPMC Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh, said Samantha Cook, his mother. He has a concussion and a knee injury, but is expected to be OK.

“How can you hit a kid, or hit anybody, and just leave?” Cook said Wednesday.

Limani described the driver as being a white man between 30 and 40 years old. Surveillance cameras along Emma Street captured the car, but troopers did not have a license plate. The boy was with a group of children riding bicycles on the street in a residential area.

The driver may face charges related to leaving the scene, Limani said.

“It’s your responsibility at a crash to stop, render aid, provide information,” he said.

Theresa Whitefield left her Penn Borough home around 6 p.m. to go to Cook’s house when she said she saw her grandson lying on the street and the bicycle she and her husband recently bought him nearby. Several children stayed with him until his parents and help arrived, she said.

“He’s all banged up but it could’ve been a lot worse,” Whitefield said.

He is recovering at home, Cook said. She has some choice words for the driver who left the scene.

“I just want to know why he didn’t stop,” Cook said.

Jody Miller said there are numerous children in the neighborhood, including her own, who play on Emma Street, oftentimes riding their bicycles. She is concerned by the speed of vehicles that travel through the small community.

“This street is packed with kids,” she said.

Anyone with information on the vehicle or the driver’s identity can call state police at 724-832-3288. Police believe the car has damage to the front end.