Minneapolis community pushing for better road safety after 11-year-old struck, injured

A young girl is spending her 11th birthday in the hospital Thursday night.

Her says she was hit by a car while handing out invites to the party, and now there's a push for safety changes on the street where it happened.

The portion of Upton Avenue North is full of signs letting drivers know children are at play. That's what Angel Holt was doing Sunday afternoon, playing with friends while delivering invitations to her birthday party.

"She wasn't doing anything she wasn't supposed to do," said Raelinda Brown.

Home surveillance video captured the accident that severely injured Holt and sent her mother into panic mode.

"I seen my daughter on the ground from my window and I didn't know if she was alive, dead anything she was not moving," said Brown.

 Brown says it wasn't until they were in the ambulance that her daughter finally opened her eyes again.

"She said that she just went black. She didn't know what happened. She asked me what happened," Brown said.

Holt is dealing with facial fractures, a broken ankle, and bruising on her brain. Her mother says the neighborhood has been trying for years to get traffic controls put in.

"The cars just speed by no matter the time of day. Morning, afternoon in the evening its constant," said Carolyn.

To prevent something like this from happening on the street coming off Olsen Highway, Carolyn has led the charge to stop drivers from using Upton Avenue as a speedway.

"I've submitted three years in a row trying to request speed bumps and we still haven't seen them," said Carolyn.

This accident has neighbors rallying support for solutions to keep this neighborhood street kid friendly.

The driver who hit Holt did stop and is cooperating with police. Neighbors have started an online fundraiser to help Holt and her mom.