A child was hospitalized Wednesday afternoon after being hit by a vehicle on Jacksonville's Westside, according to Jacksonville Fire and Rescue. The crash happened at the intersection of 103rd Street and La Ventura Drive East, and fire officials said the pediatric patient suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
JFRD transported the child from the scene, according to News4JAX, which first reported the crash Wednesday. Details beyond the location, the timing and the nature of the child's injuries have not been released, and the station noted the report was still developing as a crew headed to the scene to gather more information.
What We Still Don't Know
No information has been made available about the child's age, the driver involved, the vehicle, or how the crash unfolded. It also hasn't been confirmed whether the child was in a crosswalk or elsewhere in the roadway at the time of impact, and no word has come on whether the intersection saw lane closures or an extended emergency response.
The stretch of 103rd Street has seen other serious crashes this year. A woman using a crosswalk on 103rd Street was killed in June after being hit by an SUV that had a green light, the Florida Highway Patrol reported to News4JAX. Months earlier, in March, a 25-year-old woman crossing 103rd Street was killed in a hit-and-run, with the driver possibly identified, according to the same account.
A Citywide Pattern of Traffic Deaths
The crash comes as Jacksonville's overall traffic fatality numbers continue to climb. The station's report from earlier this week found that the city's roads remained nearly as deadly in 2026 as they were at the same point the previous year, citing Jacksonville Sheriff's Office data showing 127 fatalities so far this year. As of mid-June, Duval County had recorded 90 traffic deaths for 2026, including 24 pedestrians and seven hit-and-run cases, per the same account.
Jacksonville's planning department has flagged the city as part of a designated high-crash focus region within the state, working alongside the North Florida Transportation Planning Organization to map fatal and serious pedestrian and bicycle crashes. The city says it considers high-crash corridors, including what it calls Vision Zero High-Injury Networks, when selecting sites for pedestrian and bicycle safety data collection. Nothing in the available record ties Wednesday's crash on 103rd Street to those designated corridors.
This remains a developing story, and further details about the child's condition and the circumstances of the crash had not been released as of publication.
