Eleven-year-old twin sisters from were hit by a car near the intersection of Moorpark Street and Colfax Avenue at about 1:34 Tuesday afternoon.
One girl is in critical condition and the other is in serious condition, Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Erik Scott said. Overnight, the girls were still at the Los Angeles Children's Hospital, one still in serious condition and one listed as critical.
The children were hit by a car at 11653 W. Moorpark St., only a few blocks from the school.
Walter Reed Assistant Principal Deborah Alexander accompanied the sisters in the ambulance to the hospital, according to a school official. also headed to the hospital with the students as their family was notified.
Tuesday was a "minimum day," when students were released an hour earlier than usual while teachers attended staff meetings.
According to unconfirmed reports, the girls ran across the street through a red light.
Seventh-grade Reed student Rebecca Northup saw the scene while walking home and said "the girl was lying on the floor flailing her limbs ... mostly her legs. It was very scary and people on the sidewalk were screaming and crying. She was screaming and when the ambulance came they cut off her clothes and helped her to the gurney."
"It was very terrifying," a witness who said she was a mother of a student at the school told Patch in an email. She said the girls were not in a crosswalk. One of the girls' shoes was knocked off.
Local resident and Reed seventh-grader Seira Narita said, "I wasn't there when the girls got hit. I saw her lying on the ground writhing and screaming in pain. Everyone was crowded around and screaming, 'She got hit by a car!' Then the ambulance came and they cut her clothes off. I couldn't see the other girl."
Narita got upset at the scene. She realized that the ones who were hit were her close friends.
"At first the girl looked dead . . . the car wasn't near the crosswalk when I saw, so the girl must've flew when the car hit her," Narita said. "It didn't look that serious because she was crying, showing that she felt pain."
Another witness, a local parent, said this is the second incident of a child being hit near a dangerous intersection. A student three years ago was hit nearby at Whipple and Vineland. "This wouldn't have happened if there was a crossing guard at that intersection," said the father, who was picking up his son at Reed.
The Daily News of Los Angeles quoted Sgt. Ed Waschak of the Los Angeles Police Department's Valley Traffic Division saying that initial reports showed the driver was not at fault.
"It looks like they were in the roadway. The car had the right-of-way," Waschak told the newspaper. "The driver was deemed to not be doing anything wrong."
LAPD spokesman Richard French said, "The two young children were not in a crosswalk. It was not a hit and run, and the driver was not impaired.''
City Council member Paul Krekorian has been a longtime outspoken advocate for , and has told drivers when approaching school zones to slow down. Last year, a student from Campbell Hall in Studio City was injured while crossing the street on Laurel Canyon Boulevard.
Stay tuned to Patch for up-to-the-minute information as it happens. If you have any information or saw the accident, please COMMENT below or email MikeS@patch.com.
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