WASHINGTON — A 12-year-old D.C. girl is traumatized. She currently can’t walk and is on crutches after being hit by a truck earlier this month. Meanwhile, her mother is still trying to understand how the driver who hit her is still on the road.
“It’s okay, it feels better than when it first happened,” Paisley Brodie said. “It was hurting bad.”
Despite it all though, Paisley is in good spirits.
She said she was hit by a truck when she was leaving school on Sept. 9.
“I was just crossing the street and I guess he just came around from another car and hit me,” Paisley said. “I didn’t see him coming, so it was just like unexpected.”
She says it all happened so fast after she waited her turn to walk along the crosswalk around 3:45 p.m. on the 300 block of 6th Street in Northeast D.C.
“She said because he kept blaming me, she kept trying to explain to me like ‘Mommy I crossed the street the right way,’ like I taught her how to look both ways,” Paisley's mother, Deirdre Allen said. “I told Paisley that’s not her fault.”
Paisley said what the driver did after he hit her is what really annoyed her. She and other witnesses say the driver got out of his truck and yelled at her — blaming her for the incident. Paisley said that made her feel sad.
“He didn’t say anything to me,” Paisley said. “He was just was talking to other people, like saying 'you can call the police' and stuff. He was asking other people if I’m okay, but he didn’t ask me personally.”
The crash left her with several fractured toes and tire marks on her leg and her shoe.
“He really could’ve injured her way worse because he rode completely over her toe and the bone the doctors said connects all five of her toes,” Allen said.
The Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) responded to the scene. Officers say the driver — who has not been identified — was driving recklessly.
“It’s not even a big street, so I’m trying to figure out like how did the person not see her or why did they just hit her,” Allen said.
The driver was only issued a ticket. Ward 6 Councilman Charles Allen said on X that the driver has more than 80 speeding tickets — with 18,000 dollars in fines owed. WUSA9 has not been able to verify his claims about the tickets yet.
“It just makes me very upset,” Deirdre Allen said. “[I’m] wondering like how is he able to still drive? What is his reason for getting behind the wheel and driving in that manner, because it could’ve been way worse.”
Paisley is counting her blessings as she receives support and love.
“I’m happy that I’m getting better,” she said.
Due to her injuries, Paisley has to sit out from cheering and an upcoming trip she was looking forward to. She hopes to return to school soon because she doesn’t want to fall behind on her class work.
WUSA9 is working to learn more about those previous driving tickets allegedly issued to the driver. It's unclear if this is a D.C. driver or if they are from a different state.