A driver has been charged in the hit-and-run of an 11-year-old girl who was struck by a truck and seriously injured while riding her bicycle through a crosswalk in McHenry.
Patricia A. Bredehorst, 76, of Harvard, was charged with failure to give aid or information, failure to yield to a pedestrian in a crosswalk and driving without valid registration.
The McHenry Police Department and McHenry Township Fire Protection District responded around 4:38 p.m. Friday to the intersection of Curran Road and Dartmoor Drive for a vehicle crash with injuries.
McHenry Deputy Police Chief Thomas Walsh said officers arrived to find a crash involving a vehicle and a bicyclist.
A preliminary investigation showed the bicyclist was struck by a gray 2023 Ford F-150, which had been traveling south on Curran Road.
The bicyclist, an 11-year-old girl from McHenry, was transported by ambulance to Northwestern Medicine McHenry Hospital, Walsh said.
The ambulance met with a LifeNet helicopter at their helipad and the child was transferred to the helicopter for transport.
The helicopter flew the victim to Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge for treatment of serious injuries.
The Ford fled the scene and traveled southbound on Curran Road before it was later located at Bull Valley Road and Crystal Lake Road, Walsh said.
The driver of the Ford, identified as Bredehorst, and the passenger, a 79-year-old man, were both uninjured.
Walsh said there were no indications that alcohol or drugs played a factor in the crash.
The McHenry County Regional Crash Assistance Team responded to the scene to conduct a crash investigation.
The team consists of police officers from the McHenry Police Department, Woodstock Police Department, Spring Grove Police Department, Harvard Police Department, Cary Police Department and the Johnsburg Police Department.
Walsh said on Monday that an investigation determined the bicyclist activated the pedestrian crossing lights and was crossing the intersection when she was struck by the Ford.
“The McHenry Police Department wants to thank our community for their patience while we conducted this investigation. Our thoughts are with the injured young girl and her family and we hope for her speedy recovery,” Walsh said.
Gabriella Vagnoli, who is organizing a fundraiser on behalf of the family, said the girl, Moira Arjona, was crossing the road in a marked pedestrian crossing when she was struck by the truck.
“While she is not in danger for her life thankfully, the road to recovery will be long and in these situations the stress on the family is enough without having to be compounded with worrying about expenses or bills or loss of income,” Vagnoli said.
“For those of you who know Moira, you know that she is a wonderful, loving, amazing girl full of energy and life,” Vagnoli added.
Arjona suffered a punctured lung, fractured ribs, bruised spine and a fractured skull.
She was put on a ventilator and sedated but was taken off of the ventilator on Sunday.
“Moira is awake and extubated! She is already asking for her phone to text her friends and I bet pretty soon she’s going to be bossing all of the nurses and doctors around!” Vagnoli said.
A GoFundMe account has raised over $6,000 for Arjona’s family.