Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect the student on a bicycle hit a vehicle, not the other way around as initially reported to Cowboy State Daily. Also, his mother has confirmed the boy, a Cody Middle School student, is "home and doing good."
CODY — Charlie Lindahl, an eighth grader at Cody Middle School, had a rough start to his Thursday. He was riding his bike to school when he ran into a vehicle at the intersection of East Sheridan Avenue and 24th Street.
The incident happened around 7:30 a.m. on the eastern end of Sheridan Avenue a few blocks from CMS.
“I came upon the scene a few minutes after it happened,” said Amber Golly-Simonson. “There were only civilians there. No police or ambulance had arrived yet. My husband parked in the middle of the road to try to stop traffic, but people just kept driving through. The child appeared to be a middle schooler.”
Officers from the Cody Police Department and a Cody Regional Health ambulance arrived a few minutes later. Simonson said officers interviewed the driver of the vehicle.
After investigating the incident, the Cody Police Department determined that Charlie was heading down the 24th Street hill “at a high rate of speed” and couldn’t stop at the intersection in time and struck the side of a vehicle.
An ambulance was called and took Charlie to be evaluated. His mother later told Cowboy State Daily that her son is going to be OK.
“He’s home and doing good,” said his mother, Alexandria Knudtson Lindahl.
Lindahl corroborated the Cody PD’s account of what happened, adding that according to her son, the sidewalk and pavement were slick after a morning rain shower, making it difficult to stop.
“He was already coming down the hill, and with the wet road and breaks, he just couldn’t get stopped in time,” she said. “No fault of the driver.”
Charlie was taken to Cody Regional Health via ambulance and cleared for release soon after he arrived. Aside from a few cuts and scrapes, Lindahl said her son is fine.
“Thank goodness for helmets,” she said.
School Safety
While Thursday's incident was a case of a child running into a vehicle, there have been cases of students having brushes with vehicles.
On April 17, 2023, a Cody High School student was hit at the intersection of 10th Street and Beck Avenue within 100 yards of the school’s main entrance. In January 2021, a Cody Middle School student suffered a “glancing blow” from a semitrailer while crossing Big Horn Avenue.
Park County School District 6 worked with the Wyoming Department of Transportation to install a temporary pedestrian crosswalk on Big Horn Avenue, citing a lack of pedestrian and student safety. Cody Middle School sits at the intersection of Big Horn Avenue, which is also a stretch of U.S. Highway 14, and Freedom Street.
There have been plans to install a pedestrian hybrid beacon at Big Horn Avenue and Freedom Street to provide a safe crossing for Cody Middle School students. However, since Big Horn Avenue is a federal highway and WYDOT data shows there hasn’t been enough pedestrian usage for a designated pedestrian crossing, getting permission and money for the project has been difficult.
Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.
