Woman, two children injured when hit by car near Northwest Blvd. and Monroe

A woman and two young children were badly injured when they were hit by a car on North Monroe Street on Friday evening. The woman and children were crossing Monroe at about 6:30 p.m. Friday when they were struck by a white station wagon, said Sgt. Lydia Taylor of the Spokane Police Department. The woman and one of the children were taken to a local hospital with life-threatening injuries. The other child had serious injuries. The driver stopped a block away on Montgomery Avenue and returned to the scene to speak to police, Taylor said. The driver was taken in for questioning but was not arrested. Police had not determined late Friday whether the driver had violated any law to contribute to the crash. Sharon Valencia said she was standing at the corner of Monroe Street and Mansfield Avenue when she heard what she described as an “incredible bam.” Then she saw a tiny body lying in the street. “I thought he was a little rag doll the way he was laying,” Valencia said. Valencia, who lives nearby, said the children looked like they were about 4 or 5 years old and the woman in her 20s. When Valencia ran to check on the boy he was awake, though confused and crying for his mother. He was sitting but had a large bump on the back of his head, she said. The woman and other child, a girl, were not responsive when Valencia checked on them. “I saw (the woman) laying there and her eyes were open, and the little girl was just really quiet,” Valencia said. Brian Anderson was at a nearby restaurant and had stepped out for a cigarette when he saw the crash, he said. The victims were thrown several feet in the air, he said. “It was awful.” Anderson said all three victims were breathing when he checked on them. The woman and girl looked like they’d suffered more injuries than the boy, he said. “It’s bad, it’s really bad,” he said. “You just pray that they make it.” The station wagon was blocked off with police tape, and Monroe was closed from Knox to Montgomery avenues for several hours as police investigated. Neither the victims nor the driver were identified. Spokane police encourage any other witnesses of the crash to call Crime Check at (509) 456-2233.