PHILADELPHIA — A middle-school principal struck a high school student with her SUV at a crosswalk Monday and stayed at the scene with emergency crews but didn’t identify herself as the driver until calling authorities 50 minutes later, police said.
The 15-year-old male Penn ridge High School student suffered head injuries and was in critical but stable condition at Lehigh Valley Hospital, said Pennridge Regional Police Chief David Mettin. He did not release the student’s name.
Margaret Kantes, 66, struck the student at an intersection about 6:50 a.m., parked her sport utility vehicle and stayed near the scene, the chief said. She twice started to call 911 but was told by someone else that they already had reached emergency dispatchers, he said.
Kantes left the scene by the time Mettin arrived about 7:15 a.m. and apparently drove a few hundred yards to her parking spot at Pennridge North Middle School, the chief said. She called police about 7:40 a.m. to report that she was the driver, Mettin said.
At the time, police were investigating reports that a school bus was involved in a suspected hit and run.
“She never said (at the scene), ‘I’m the driver.’ We’ll find out about that,” Mettin said. “We do want to take a look at her car.”
Kantes appeared to have a green light at the intersection, he said. She voluntarily submitted to a blood test and is not under arrest.
“I know she was very shaken up,” Mettin said.
