Toddler, 3, riding in stroller injured after being hit by car

A 3-year-old Carson City girl was injured Friday night when a vehicle struck her stroller as her mother pushed it across a dark crosswalk on College Parkway.

Deputy Nathan Brehm said mother Erika Moreno and her six children, including 3-year-old Cindi, were on their way home from trick-or-treating about

8:20 p.m. when the group attempted to cross the five-lane street on Northgate Lane at College Parkway.

While in the crosswalk, a four-door sedan driven by Richard Benefield, 61, struck the stroller, carrying the stroller and the child about 25 feet to the east before coming to a stop.

Officers said the child's injuries appeared to be non-life threatening. She was taken to the hospital by ambulance then flown from there to the trauma center in Reno.

"I'm so sorry," said Benefield. "This is terrible. Nothing like this has ever happened to me before."

Moreno family friend Maria Avila said Erika told her Cindi was quiet when she and her other children reached her.

"(Cindi) couldn't speak or do nothing. She was not even crying," Avila said Erika told her. "She said that really scared her."

Avila arrived at the scene to take the stunned family to the hospital.

Erika's older daughter Karla Moreno, 11, said family began to cross after their mother looked to see if it was clear.

"The car was far," Karla translated her mother saying. "It just came like that."

Erika Moreno held her baby's bee costume to her chest and wrapped her other arm around her 10-year-old son Rogelio, clinging red-eyed to her side. Her other children, Karla, Maria, 7, and David, 8, stood quietly crying next to her.

Davey Round and James Marler live on the north side of College Parkway and were walking home when they came upon the aftermath of the accident.

They said they often cross at that intersection and had just discussed how dark it was there.

"Really, we try to only cross in the daytime, because at nighttime it's ridiculous," said Round.

"This intersection is so dangerous," added Marler. "They need to put some lights over here."