After being airlifted to Harborview Medical Center for a broken leg and facial lacerations, Melony Rich is wondering why the person who hit her son in a crosswalk last week only received a $175 ticket.

Jayshawn Williams, 9, was walking to Panther Lake Elementary (34424 1st Ave. S.) at 8:23 a.m. on Thursday, Sept. 22, with his mom and two siblings when they stopped at a street corner.

“I always teach my kids to stop,” Rich said.

The trio pressed the crosswalk button, activating the flashing lights on 1st Avenue South near the King County Library. Jayshawn, a third-grader at Panther Lake, went ahead while his mother walked behind with her 6-year-old and 1-year-old.

“He was almost fully across the street when a vehicle smacked him,” she said. “He flew in the air and landed face down. I started screaming.”

Rich said teachers from the nearby school immediately ran to help.

“I told him to just keep breathing, mommy’s here,” she recalled. “Help is on its way.”

Rich said her son was spitting up blood, a frightening sight. She was relieved to later learn it was just a cut lip.

More concerning was his leg: Jayshawn suffered a pinched artery and needed surgery immediately. The boy also suffered a broken femur and broken ankle.

“He’s alive, so that’s the best thing,” she said, but added that he’s still in a lot of pain.

Jayshawn was treated by fire personnel at the scene and then airlifted to Harborview Medical Center.

Rich said she believes the woman who hit her son did so by accident, but she’s frustrated more wasn’t done to ensure the driver wasn’t speeding or was under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Furthermore, she said, a $175 ticket for failure to yield to a pedestrian doesn’t seem like enough for a child who almost lost his life.

“It was broad daylight,” she said. “I just don’t see how she did not see him.”

Federal Way Police Department spokeswoman Cathy Schrock said traffic investigators found no evidence of the negligence that would result in criminal charges.

“No indication of impairment, no witness statements regarding reckless driving/speeding leading up to the collision,” she said. “In the absence of criminal negligence, investigators have only the infraction.”

According to the traffic collision report produced by police, the 28-year-old driver said she was near the crosswalk when the lights were activated and the “pedestrian came running across quickly,” leaving her no time to react.

A witness who was driving southbound confirmed to police she saw the child run across the crosswalk before he was hit by the other driver, who “appeared not to see the pedestrian until it was too late.”

Rich said it will be a little less than two weeks before Jayshawn returns to the doctor for X-rays, a cast, and to get some pins removed from his ankle. She said doctors estimate a four- to six-week recovery after that.

“Down the road, he might need additional surgeries because his leg may not grow as quickly as the other one,” Rich said.

Rich set up a gofundme.com account to help pay for Jayshawn’s procedures and to help during the time she can’t work while she cares for her son. The crowd-funding website has raised $1,790 of the $9,000 goal as of Tuesday afternoon.

Jayshawn was the second child in recent weeks to be hit by a car on the way to school. On Sept. 14, a 12-year-old girl was hit on her way to Kilo Middle School in Auburn.