HUNTINGTON BEACH : Hunt Pressed for Driver Who Hit Boy

It has been a week since 14-year-old Corey Burton was hit by a car and left on a downtown Huntington Beach street, his skull and shoulder fractured. The week has not dulled his mother’s fury.

“You have no idea what’s going on inside of me,” Donna Burton said Friday. “I’m livid that someone could do this to anybody and not take responsibility for their actions. I don’t know how they can live with themselves.”

This weekend, with her son recovering at Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach, Burton plans to distribute 1,000 flyers at Huntington Beach homes and businesses, hoping to find the driver of the car. So far, police have little to go on.

“We have witnesses who say they heard a thud that sounded like a large car trunk shutting,” Burton said. “After that thud, they heard an acceleration of a car, so whoever hit him didn’t slow down or anything.”

Corey was injured May 31 at about 10:30 p.m. after attending a movie in the downtown area with friends and an adult. After the movie, Corey went to a friend’s house to retrieve his skateboard and then headed back to the movies where his mother was to pick him up, she said.

While her son cannot remember the accident, Burton said Corey was probably riding his skateboard when he was hit. She was waiting for a call from her son when police officers arrived at the door, Burton said.

“It’s our worst fear, having something like this happen to our children,” said Burton, a single mother who also has a 3-year-old son.

Corey, a student at Dwyer Middle School in Huntington Beach, was released from the the hospital Wednesday evening but was readmitted Thursday with dizzy spells, hot and cold flashes and a loss of hearing, his mother said. Doctors have told her that Corey may have permanent disabilities, she said.

Burton, who owns a housekeeping service, said that searching for a suspect has been time-consuming but that she is not willing to abandon the effort. Huntington Beach Police Sgt. Carl Vidano said investigators need all the help they can get. So far, police only have one witness, someone who heard the impact, looked out the window and saw a child rolling in the street, he said.

“When the officers arrived at the scene, (Corey) was lying in the street in the intersection,” Vidano said. “We have nothing as far as the suspect vehicle. That’s what’s really making it tough. We have nothing to go on at all.”

Police are asking that anyone with information about the accident call (714) 536-5663.