The driver, who was not identified by police, stayed at the scene, trying to help, witnesses said. She is not being charged, police said. Paramedics rushed the child to St. Christopher's Hospital, where he was being treated for serious head injuries, police said.
The boy's parents and the school principal were at the hospital with the boy, school officials said.
"We are all very saddened by this incident," said Fernando Gallard, a Philadelphia School District spokesman, adding that counselors would be available for students Friday.
At dismissal time at Creighton, children carried letters about the accident to the parents, many of whom called for more crossing guards.
The accident comes after Giselle Moya, a 28-year-old Rhawnhurst woman who was eight months pregnant, was killed Monday night by a motorcyclist at Faunce Street and the Boulevard. She was hit trying to cross at a marked pedestrian walkway at a dangerous bend in the roadway just north of Cottman Avenue. Doctors could not save her unborn child. The motorcyclist has not been charged, police said.
Moya was the 49th person killed on Roosevelt Boulevard in the last five years, said Eugene Blaum, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. Two other pedestrians have been killed near the Faunce Street crosswalk since 2001, he said.
As part of a planned safety project, a traffic signal will be installed at Faunce Street this summer, Blaum said. Other dangerous crosswalks will also get signals, he said.
City Controller Alan Butkovitz, whose office issued a study five years ago calling for wide-ranging improvements to the Boulevard, including more traffic signals, said the project was taking too long to get started.
"It's been five years and there has been no response - no action," he said.
The Whitaker Avenue intersection, where Bienamie was struck, is also dangerous, residents said.
"There's always accidents. Something happens almost every day," said Joe Regan, who owns a bar at the intersection and was cleaning up when he heard a thud Thursday morning.
"At first I thought it was just another accident, but I didn't hear any glass," he said, so he opened the window blinds and saw the driver standing over the child in the street.
Gallard said school officials regularly review safety measures with children about the busy streets near the schools.
Deserre Brown, who crossed with her 3-year-old daughter around lunchtime, said her high school-age son had attended Creighton and often missed his school bus, forcing him to cross the Boulevard on his own.
"It's really dangerous," she said. "They need to have a crossing guard - they really do."
Contact staff writer Mike Newall at 856-779-3237 or mnewall@phillynews.com.
