Via Facebook.

After a 6-year-old boy was fatally struck by a car, family and friends gathered in Southeast to mourn, and neighbors reacted to the unsafe conditions for pedestrians crossing the block of Livingston Road.

Family members told reporters that they were celebrating Xavier Luckey’s sixth birthday with a cookout at a nearby park on Wednesday before he was killed that evening.

“He was such a good boy. He was so full of life,” Luckey’s cousin, Shanita Simms, told NBC Washington. “It was just such a tragedy that it happened on his birthday.”

Luckey was a kindergarten student at Hendley Elementary School, where officials told parents that grief counselors are available to any children who need them, NBC reports.

Friends and family members held a vigil for Luckey at the crash site, now marked with balloons and stuffed animals, on Thursday evening. About a dozen children sang Happy Birthday and This Little Light of Mine in the road.

According to D.C. police, the six year old was crossing the street on the 4300 block of Livingston Road SE when he was hit by a vehicle around 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday.

The block is located between Atlantic and South Capitol Streets SE. Police describe it as “two directional, non-divided, with no crosswalk present.”

Donald Jones told The Washington Post that he saw Luckey walk toward the park when a fast-traveling car hit him. Just before the impact, “the boy paused, as if frozen,” Jones told The Post, adding that Luckey was a step or two from the curb. “He had almost made it to the park.”

“I heard a boom and I heard a holler,” another witness, Shannon Smith, told NBC. She said other children crossed the street before Luckey, “so he thought that maybe he could make it.”

He was taken to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead.

“There is a park, a playground—you see this—and a school zone,” Smith told Fox 5 News, adding that the community is asking the city to put safety measures on the road. “Now, it’s a little too late, but we asking you to put a speed bump up, a walkway for our kids to get back and forth across the street.”

DDOT spokesperson Terry Owens told DCist that transit agency is “evaluating measures” for the section of Livingston Road where Luckey was killed. He says in the short term, the agency will install pedestrian warning signs near the park “to highlight to drivers the presence of people crossing the street.” The agency will also collect data in the area to decide if crosswalks or things like speed humps are needed to help mitigate safety concerns.

Mayor Muriel Bowser said in March that officials are identifying streets with potential safety risks to make changes as part of D.C.’s Vision Zero plan to eliminate all traffic-related fatalities and injuries by 2024.

The driver who hit Luckey left the scene, but later reported the crash to police and interviewed with officials, according to a police spokeswoman. No charges have been filed.

This post has been updated with a comment from DDOT spokesperson Terry Owens.

Filed Under: livingston road, traffic incident, vision zero, Xavier Luckey,