Hailey Ratliff, a 7th-grade student at Sinaloa Middle School in Novato, died on Thursday after being struck by an SUV while riding her bike in Novato. The accident happened at around 3:15 p.m. on Novato Boulevard near San Marin Drive.

"I saw the car that hit her and the front was mashed in," Jordan Herbstman, 16, a Sandy Creek Way resident, tells Marin Independent Journal. "It looked pretty bad and right now the cops are looking at all the stuff that's all over the ground."

The unidentified man who hit Ratliff stayed at the scene and cooperated with authorities. Novato police, however, are asking any possible witnesses to call 415-897-4361.

[Marin IJ]