Crossing guard struck by vehicle outside Sangaree Intermediate School

A crossing guard was struck by a vehicle this morning outside Sangaree Intermediate School, troopers and school officials said.

The crash was reported at 7:27 a.m. outside the school at the intersection of Royle Road and Sangaree Parkway.

James Howard, a parent of a fifth-grader at Sangaree Intermediate, said he was waiting at the stop sign at Sangaree Parkway when he saw the crossing guard escort some children across the road. He said he saw a white pickup truck accelerate quickly to turn left from Royle Road into the school parking lot. The truck struck the guard between 20 and 30 mph, he said.

“When she hit she hit hard,” Howard said. “When she laid down she stayed down.”

Cpl. Bob Beres of the S.C. Highway Patrol said the driver of the 1997 Chevrolet pickup, a 16-year-old girl from Goose Creek, was ticketed $225 for disobeying a school guard. The girl had a passenger in the truck who was not named.

Natalie C. Boles, the 35-year-old crossing guard from Summerville, was taken to Medical University Hospital. Her condition wasn’t immediately known.Berkeley County rescuers reported that Boles was unconscious at the scene.

Howard said he and other parents have been asking for a traffic light at the intersection since his son was in kindergarten.

“It takes something like this for somebody to actually put a light up,” Howard said.

Reach Andrew Knapp at 937-5414 or twitter.com/offlede.