Woman leaving San Leandro store dies after being hit by boy on bike
Woman dies after being knocked down by boy on a bike
A 77-year-old woman died after she was hit by a boy riding a bicycle at Bayfair Center in San Leandro. Through their grief, the womans family is urging children to take extra care when they ride their bikes. KTVUs Henry Lee spoke with the victims sisters.
SAN LEANDRO, Calif. - A 77-year-old woman has died after she was hit by a 12-year-old boy on a bike as she left a store at Bayfair Center in San Leandro.
"A senseless tragedy," Mary Lou Eggiman of Castro Valley said of her sister, Judy Dieter Eisenberg.
"Safety matters. Everyone says all the time, you know, someone's gonna get hurt - and, someone got killed," Eggiman said.
It happened the afternoon of Jan 3. Eisenberg was leaving Kohl's at the mall and stepped off the curb when three kids on bikes approached her from her right.
One boy was doing a wheelie and was ahead of the others. She stopped to let him pass.
The two other boys, who were not doing wheelies, came toward her next. Eisenberg stopped to avoid one boy, then stepped back, directly into the path of the other boy, who is 12.
"It appeared he was trying to stop, he put his foot down on the ground to try to speed up his braking, but was unable to do so in time," said San Leandro police Lt. Abe Teng.
The impact knocked Eisenberg to the ground. She died Monday at Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley from serious injuries.
"They said a fractured skull, bleeding around the brain," said another sister Cathy Tapia.
Teng says the boy was not cited and will likely not face any criminal charges.
"The collision was accidental in nature. There wasn't any - it did not appear to be any malicious intent," Teng said. "It was not an intentional act."
But now her loved ones are left to grieve, mourning the loss of one of 12 siblings in their tight-knit family.
"It's sad. She was so full of life. She was not, you know, a fragile, little old lady," Eggiman said, adding her sister was "active socially, physically, walked five miles a day."
The women want to know how a simple shopping trip would turn deadly because of the crash involving a boy on a bike.
"So that haunts me. Was this a little jerk or was he a nice kid? Does he know the harm he's done?" Eggiman asked.
The women want to see surveillance video from Kohl's. The store declined to share it with KTVU, and neither did San Leandro police. But Teng said police might show the video and any others it finds with the family in a private setting.
Henry Lee is a KTVU crime reporter. E-mail Henry at Henry.Lee@fox.com and follow him on Twitter @henrykleeKTVU and www.facebook.com/henrykleefan