CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Two Garinger High School students were in the hospital Monday night after they were hit around 7 Monday morning while trying to dodge traffic outside their high school, according to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police.
Alyssa Cruz, 17, is listed in fair condition, according to a spokesman from Carolinas Medical Center. Dawson Carlton, 16, is in the pediatric intensive care unit at Levine Children's Hospital, said his mother Sonja Patton.
Patton said her son is able to wiggle his toes and knows the month and year. But she did say her son has bleeding on the brain and a cracked skull, and that doctors are monitoring him closely.
Still, she was relieved and encouraged that her son was able to talk and move slightly.
The students were hit at the same intersection where Garinger student Brittany Palmer died in 2012. Palmer was eating at a nearby restaurant and had planned to attend a game at the school. At that time of her death, there was no crosswalk in front of the school, and the sidewalk was incomplete. After Palmer's death, Charlotte City Council added crosswalks and completed the sidewalk. At every corner there are now traffic signals students can use for safe crossing.
Palmer's mother, Katrina White, said she was frustrated the students are not using the signals on Eastway Drive and East Sugar Creek Road.
While NBC Charlotte was at the intersection, our cameras caught several students dodging traffic, ignoring the signals.
"Teenagers think they're invincible," said White as she looked over the intersection where her daughter died almost three years ago.
"They really don't know anything. They haven't lived long enough to know what can happen," she said.
Palmer would have turned 21 on Thursday.
Police are not charging the driver of the truck that hit the students Monday.
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