A suburban faith community was left grieving after a 12-year-old girl was struck and killed while exiting her family's vehicle following an earlier crash.
Gianna Lamb had attended a student ministry event at Community Christian Church in Plainfield prior to the collision on Wednesday night.
"Sweet girl. In fact, the last thing that she left with from her student ministry leader was a handwritten note that said, ' You are enough. you are enough just the way you are.' Gianna, God loves you. you are enough," pastor John Ciesniewski said.
The pastor said Gianna left the event with her cousins, and shortly after, they ended up in a minor accident along Route 59.
"Gianna must have panicked, maybe got out of the car," he said. "I probably would too, like I got to get out of here. But now you're in the middle of Route 59, and you've got traffic coming in 45 miles an hour, and then another passing car. She walked right in front of it."
Gianna was rushed to the hospital after the accident, but the following day the pre-teen died from her injuries.
According to the pastor, the driver of the car that struck Gianna was also a member of the church.
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"There's this sense of guilt," he said. "We're trying to walk them through to say, look, this is not your fault."
As the families and faith community continue to grieve, Ciesniewski hopes the tragedy will lead to the installation of a traffic light near the church's entrance. Some have been making that request for years before Gianna's death.
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"There's way too much activity," he said. "There's way too much."
