CAR HITS 4TH-GRADER CROSSING NEAR SCHOOL.

Byline: Patricia Farrell Aidem Staff Writer

A fourth-grade girl was hit by a car Friday after school, adding fuel to a campaign for a crossing guard on Newhall Avenue.

The 10-year-old went up the hood and shattered the windshield of the passing Honda but wasn't seriously hurt, Los Angeles County sheriff's officials said.

``There were cars lining up the street waiting for kids,'' driver Robert Klein said. ``She came out of nowhere, I slammed on the brakes, and bam! I hit her. I got out of the car; I said, Are you OK? Are you OK?''

Klein, who turned 21 on Friday, was not at fault in the 12:30 p.m. accident, said sheriff's Deputy Anthony Arnold of the Santa Clarita sheriff's station.

``The little girl came running out between the cars,'' Arnold said. ``He had no way of knowing. It could have been a lot worse.''

Newhall School officials and parents have asked the city of Santa Clarita for a crossing guard on Newhall Avenue between 11th and 13th streets. The city finances a crossing guard a half-block north on Newhall Avenue, but parents tend to wait for their children closer to the campus exit, sometimes across the street, one mother said.

Klein had just left the Department of Motor Vehicles a block away, where he was renewing his driver's license because it was his birthday. He said he was driving slowly because children were leaving school.

The little girl is on a year-round schedule that let out at midday for a month long vacation. She apparently was crossing the street to her father's car.