UT Medical Center can’t comment on condition of child hit by car in Oak Ridge

The University of Tennessee Medical Center could not provide information on the condition of an eight-year-old boy hit by a car on Wednesday afternoon in Oak Ridge—or even confirm whether the child was at the hospital.

An Oak Ridge Police Department report said the boy was hit by a 1998 Toyota Camry in the parking lot of British Woods Apartments at about 4:35 p.m. Wednesday. The four-door sedan was driven by Zhenfeng Han, 33, who lives at the apartment complex on Briarcliff Avenue.

The boy, Jackson Webster, who also lives at the complex, was taken by ambulance to the UT hospital after the accident, and he was listed in critical but stable condition when ORPD Officer Christopher Luethge filed a crash report on Thursday.

On Friday, Jim Ragonese, who works in the UT Medical Center’s public relations office, said the hospital couldn’t release any information or confirm whether Webster was there.

The ORPD report said Han was driving south through the parking lot when she hit Webster as he crossed the parking lot. The boy was “launched onto the hood of the vehicle and eventually was pulled under the front driver side tire,” the report said.

Han, who was driving south through the parking lot, told Luethge that she had slowed for the speed bumps and struck Webster just after her rear tires crossed the speed bump. She said she panicked when she realized she had hit someone, and her foot hit the accelerator.

But then, “she indicated she regained control and found the brake and stopped the vehicle,” Luethge wrote in the report.

Webster’s mother was one of two witnesses who observed the accident, but she said she “could not recall anything but seeing her son go under the vehicle,” the report said.

An Oak Ridge Fire Department report, which initially identified the boy as a 10-year-old, said he was lying face up in the apartment complex driveway resting against the tire when emergency workers arrived. At the time, they reported he had abrasions on his neck but no other obvious injuries. Among other things, emergency workers put him in a cervical collar for children to support his head and neck.