Madison Barbee's phone rang at 7:28 a.m. Monday, just minutes after her 14-year-old niece had been hit by a vehicle while crossing a busy Cheyenne street on her way to school.
Her mother was on the other end, frantic. The girl was struck in a crosswalk, and an ambulance was preparing to take her to the hospital.
"I just felt like time stopped because you just don't ever think that an unimaginable accident can happen to you," Barbee told Cowboy State Daily. "It can happen to your family."
The Cheyenne East High School freshman suffered a broken collarbone, three broken ribs, bruising and road rash across much of her body, Barbee said.
Doctors admitted her to Cheyenne Regional Medical Center for overnight observation, keeping an eye on her injuries and watching for possible complications involving her lungs.
The teenager, who turns 15 on Saturday, plays bass drum in East High School's Thunderbird marching band. Before the crash, she'd been busy practicing for upcoming all-state band auditions.
"She's very smart. She's very passionate about the things that she cares about," Barbee said. "She's just a funny kid. She's fun to be around. I just adore her. She really is just the world to me."
Barbee said a witness at the scene picked up the injured girl's phone and called her emergency contact, her grandmother, who is also her legal guardian.
The grandmother immediately called Barbee before following the ambulance to the hospital.
"We're no stranger to loss," Barbee said, explaining that her sister, the teenager's mother, died in 2024.
Barbee helps her mother raise the girl, pitching in as a tutor, chauffeur and another parental figure.
"She's essentially just one of my kiddos," Barbee said. "We're a pretty tight-knit village, our family."
Driver Cited
Cheyenne police confirmed the crash happened around 7:22 a.m. Monday at the intersection of Windmill Road and East Pershing Boulevard.
The teenager was crossing the street when an oncoming vehicle struck her, police said.
Barbee identified the vehicle as a Jeep Wrangler.
Police did not identify the driver but said the motorist stayed at the scene and was cited for failure to yield.
Barbee said she was told the driver was a grandparent taking a grandchild to school and that the child riding in the vehicle called police.
Cheyenne Police Chief Mark Francisco warned drivers to pay particular attention during the busy morning and afternoon hours when students are heading to and from school.
"Pick-up and drop-off times are especially dangerous for both students and drivers near school zones," Francisco said. "We ask our citizens to help keep everyone safe by slowing down and eliminating distractions, especially in these areas."
Police did not say whether speed or distraction played a role in Monday's crash.
Same Crosswalk, Years Apart
For Barbee, the intersection carries some bad memories.
About 10 years ago, when she was a student at Cheyenne East, she said she was also hit by a vehicle while crossing the street.
"The exact same crosswalk," she emphasized.
The driver was another student who slammed on his brakes, she recalled.
Barbee escaped without serious injuries, but the experience rattled her enough that she took a different route to school for the rest of the year.
"I was definitely really shaken up," she said.
The next year, Barbee recalled, her best friend was hit at another crosswalk near Windmill and Pershing and wound up in the hospital.
During her four years at East, she said, close calls between students and passing vehicles were nothing unusual.
She also remembers trouble with the pedestrian crossing buttons, which she said sometimes failed to activate the walk signal.
"People will press the buttons and it won't let them — like the cross sign will not come up because the buttons aren't working," she said.
Warnings Years Earlier
State transportation records show pedestrians have been getting hit there for years.
A 2016 Wyoming Department of Transportation bicycle and pedestrian plan documented three pedestrian crashes and two bicycle crashes at Windmill Road and Pershing Boulevard during an earlier five-year study period.
The report also pointed out several problems with the intersection itself.
Some pedestrian ramps didn't meet accessibility standards. Other crossings were missing ramps altogether, and drivers were often pulling right into the marked crosswalks.
A business sign near the northeast corner also blocked the view for some drivers turning right, forcing them to creep farther into the crosswalk to see approaching traffic.
Five years later, two more students were hit by an oncoming GMC Acadia while crossing Pershing Boulevard at Windmill Road.
Both suffered minor injuries and were taken to Cheyenne Regional Medical Center as a precaution.
The driver stayed at the scene and, just as in Monday's crash, was cited for failure to yield.
At the time, Cheyenne police reported 238 traffic incidents in the East High School area since the beginning of 2021, including 50 at Windmill and Pershing alone.
Student Safety
The 2021 collision came just three days after another Cheyenne student, a 13-year-old boy attending McCormick Junior High School, was struck and killed while crossing Western Hills Boulevard.
The back-to-back incidents prompted Laramie County School District 1 Superintendent Margaret Crespo to address parents about student safety.
Crespo said the district was working with police, the city's Traffic Safety Committee and other officials to find ways to keep children safe on their way to and from school.
She also said the committee was expected to conduct a safety audit of pedestrian, bicycle and vehicle traffic at the district's schools, but concerns about East High School's busy streets didn't go away.
A Safe Routes to School study developed in 2024 and finalized in 2025 identified Pershing Boulevard near East High as a problem area, citing high vehicle speeds, wide crossings and drivers failing to yield to pedestrians.
The report pointed to trouble along Windmill Road, where the roadway widens and vehicles approach from the north at higher speeds.
It recommended narrowing travel lanes, cutting back on the number of lanes running side by side and adding features along the street to slow down traffic.
It also suggested more visible crosswalk markings, pedestrian signals, curb extensions and other protections for students trying to get across the street.
Calls For Safer Streets
Changes are in the works. In fact, just six days before Monday's collision, Cheyenne advertised a construction project for the very intersection where the East High freshman was struck.
The Nov. 3 solicitation calls for replacing the traffic signal system at Windmill and Pershing, installing new signs and pavement markings, adding pedestrian safety features and making improvements to sidewalks, curbs and the roadway itself.
The project follows years of city and state transportation planning that identified safety concerns around the intersection.
In June, City Engineer Thomas Cobb listed Windmill and Pershing among the city's upcoming design efforts for 2027 and 2028, specifically identifying signal replacement and safety enhancements.
Contractors have until Dec. 15 to submit bids for the intersection project.
For Barbee, Monday's collision emphasizes the need for stronger protections around schools serving older students.
"I think it's ridiculous that our secondary schools don't have school-zone signs," she said.
"I get that they're older kids, but I think that sends a message to the community that only a certain demographic of our kids are worth slowing down for and worth looking out for."
She also worries about drivers who ignore school bus stop signs, describing incidents in which motorists have honked at buses stopped to pick up children.
"I just think we as a community are becoming very blindsided by the fact that we do have children in our community, and that children are vulnerable, and they do need to be protected," she said.
Kolby Fedore can be reached at kolby@cowboystatedaily.com.
