A Penn State student was struck by a vehicle Tuesday night after she ran into the street to catch a bus, one of many pedestrian-vehicle accidents that plague the borough each year.
Fernanda Mattozo (freshman-business administration) said she was leaving CVS Pharmacy, 116 W.College Ave., with some friends when she ran in between two parked cabs to catch a Blue Loop bus across the street.
"Apparently my friend screamed, 'Fernanda, no,' but I couldn't hear anything," Mattozo said. "I was kind of like a deer in the headlights, literally."
Mattozo said she initially thought she had broken her leg, and she was transported to Mount Nittany Medical Center.
She said a police officer visited her while she was at the hospital that night to tell her that she was being ticketed for jaywalking.
"I was in the hospital with a neck brace and strapped to a backboard," Mattozo said. "I said, 'Do you really think I'm gonna do it again?' "
A report for 2003 to 2007 that analyzes downtown State College accidents found that there were 60 pedestrian-vehicle accidents within those four years. Only five of the accidents in the report listed that no one was injured.
State College Police Lt. Dana Leonard said there is much greater potential for serious injury or death in accidents involving pedestrians and cars than in low-speed car collisions.
"The pedestrian is exposed to the 3,000-pound automobile or truck. Just because of the physics of it, it's more dangerous," Leonard said.
He said his best advice for people driving or walking downtown is for "drivers to slow down a little bit and follow the rules of the road" and for pedestrians to "cross at the sidewalks and follow the rules of pedestrian crossing."
Mattozo said the man driving the car that struck her, Penn State student Greg Marsala, was nice throughout the incident, adding that he added her as a friend on Facebook.com and sent her a message to make sure she was all right.
Mattozo said she came away from the incident with no broken bones but a lot of bruises.
"I think I'm going to stick to sidewalks for a while," Mattozo said. "I'm just not going to be crossing streets in general."
