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Remember no one is asking for an end to traffic calming, just TC reform. You be the judge.
ABC
7 Online News
Los
Angeles/LAGUNA BEACH
A 13-year-old skateboarder in a coma since tumbling to the pavement a week ago during a ride alongside his father's car has died.
Michael O'Bannan died Monday at Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center, sending friends and neighbors in his close-knit Aliso Viejo neighborhood into mourning. "We miss him, and that's probably why we're crying," friend Erica Mason said. "But I'm so stunned, it's almost like he just moved away or something."
It was an after-school tradition for Michael and his father, Jon. Michael would ride on his skateboard alongside the family's Toyota 4-Runner, clinging to the open window so he could speak face to face with his dad.
But Nov. 30, the car hit a speed bump at 10 mph and Michael's skateboard tipped. The boy hit his head against the pavement twice.
At Aliso Viejo Middle School, which Michael attended, groups of students hugged each other while clutching pictures of their friend. Counselors also held sessions for about 200 students. "They talked about his blue eyes," said Gerri Gordon, guidance services director for Capistrano Unified School District. "They're sad that Michael will never get his driver's license, that he'll never get married."
Yellow ribbons were tied around trees in the Aliso Viejo neighborhood where Michael lived with his father, mother Ramona, and 9-year-old sister Caitlin. Neighbor Bert Kane said a group of residents planned to ask the Aliso Viejo Parks and Recreation committee to change the name of a nearby park to Michael O'Bannan Park.
"What can you say at a time like this?" Kane said. "It's so tragic _ the family is going through so much grief right now."