A Lakewood High School junior was hit by a car in front of the school at 7 a.m. Thursday (2/24) while she was riding her bike.

Hayley McCormack said she was crossing the crosswalk at the intersection of 54th Avenue S and 16th Street S, when she was hit by a driver pulling into the car line. According to a spokesman at the St. Petersburg Police Department, McCormack “suffered minor injuries.”

This included a gash and a bruise on her upper thigh, as well as a cut on her calf.

“I’m amazed nothing is broken,” McCormack said.

Principal Erin Savage was notified by a parent about the incident and informed School Resource Officer Eduardo Rivera, who called the police and paramedics.

“I walked up to the corner. Hayley was walking her bike up through the grass, so I grabbed her bike and told her to sit down on the sidewalk,” Savage said.

McCormack said she was then taken to the hospital and had X-rays. She said that when she was hit she fell over the handlebars, taking the brunt of the impact.

“My bike is fine. It was literally just me that got hit. … I can walk now, it’s just painful,” she said. “I’m lucky I didn’t get shoved into the telephone pole. … That would have ended badly.”

McCormack said after taking X-rays at the hospital and determining that nothing was broken, she went home. She returned on Friday with crutches.

“I (was) on my couch, elevated with green beans on (my leg),” she said.

McCormack, who has been practicing karate several years, said she is grateful for her training because it helped her from falling on her wrists or hitting her head. She was not wearing a helmet at the time, but plans to “start wearing one now.”

“We drill not head or wrist contact in karate for rolling so I avoided striking my head… I rolled and didn’t land on my wrists,” she said.

The St. Petersburg police did not release any information about the driver of the car and said no citation had been given, though their investigation is ongoing. McCormack said the driver of the car, a woman who was dropping her granddaughter at school, stopped and gave her her contact information.

Savage said that the speed of drivers during the beginning and end of school concerns her.

“The general public (needs) to realize that they’re going through a school zone, which a lot of people don’t,” she said.

Savage said she is working on making the school zone safer for students in the morning.

“I’m going to send out a message reminding parents to please slow down in the school zone,” she said.