A student driver hit a pedestrian crossing from Lot 18 to Lot 16 (Taylor Hall) on Oct. 16.

Three northbound vehicles stopped in the right lane and the approaching car moved to the left lane striking a pedestrian.

Twenty to 30-foot skid marks mar the site of the accident.

April Mead, senior psychology major, was struck by a white Honda Civic driven by Jessica Johnson, freshman computer forensics major, at approximately 9:30 a.m. yesterday.

Mead was crossing Duquesne Rd. at the south crosswalk when she was hit, rolling onto the front of the car. Her right arm pierced the windshield before she was thrown from the hood.

Johnson, who was unaware of the student in the crosswalk, changed from the right to left northbound lane as she approached the line of traffic. She drove around the stopped vehicles, locking her brakes and skidding before hitting Mead.

“I could see it happen,” said Anna Buckley, senior music performance major. “There was no possible way she [Johnson] could see her [Mead] until it was too late.”

Campus security, Joplin police and emergency service personnel responded.

“For the most part it was just carelessness on [Johnson’s] part,” said Joplin police officer Sean Higgins, who responded to the accident. Johnson has been cited for careless and imprudent driving.

Mead sustained trauma to her head and upper body and has been admitted to Freeman Hospital. She was listed in stable condition on Thursday evening.