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Mom Frustrated By Inaction At Intersection Where Daughter Was Killed

CHICAGO (CBS) -- Nearly a year after a south suburban girl was killed after she was hit by a truck, her mother says she's frustrated that safety improvements in the intersection where it happened are still years away from being started.

No Change At Busy Intersection

Kaylah Lentine was killed crossing Cicero at Southwest Highway in Oak Lawn.

"She was almost three-fourths of the way through the intersection, and a truck hit her," said Kaylah's mother Krista Wilkinson. "Three days later, we ended up donating her organs."

The kitchen is full of pictures of Kaylah.

"I feel like she is here with us everyday," she said.

The light in the intersection where she was hit is shortened when a train comes, trapping pedestrians as the cross nine lanes of traffic.

That is what happened to Kaylah. There is no pedestrian walk button at the light.

Oak Lawn has asked the Illinois Department Of Transportation. IDOT told Wilkinson it will be three to four years.

"I have people tell me that are ready to go out there with paint myself and do it," Wilkinson said.

On Friday, students at Oak Lawn Hometown Middle school will pay tribute to Kaylah, on what would have been her 15th birthday.

"I know it will be hard. Life has to go on as mush as we hate for her not to be here," Wilkinson said. "That's what she would want."

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