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A 16-year-old female Winston Churchill High School student was struck by a Ford Explorer Thursday morning as she crossed Gainsborough Road to get to school, according to Montgomery County police.

The student was taken to Suburban Hospital with non-life threatening injuries, according to Melanie Brenner, a spokeswoman for Montgomery County Police.

A parent had dropped her off on Gainsborough Road just before the collision, Brenner said, and she was not in a crosswalk at the time.

The student had "no obvious injuries" when Montgomery County Fire and Rescue responded, shortly after 7 a.m., according to Beth Anne Nesselt of the Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service public information office.  However, she was complaining of hip and leg injuries, Nesselt said. The car struck her at a low speed, Nesselt said.

"At the time she was taken [to the hospital] she was conscious and alert," said Dana Tofig, a spokesman for Montgomery County Public Schools.

When it comes to pedestrian collisions near school property, "The number one procedure is to take care of the student," Tofig said. "We did close traffic off for a few minutes and made sure she was OK."

The driver of the Ford Explorer — a 20-year-old man, according to Brenner — stayed on the scene. He is not being charged with a crime, Brenner said. The student who was struck was cited with "pedestrian failure, when not in a crosswalk, to yield right-of-way to approaching vehicle," Brenner said.

The driver was at the school to drop off a student, and may be the brother of a Churchill student, Tofig said.

School staff reported problems with parents dropping off students across Gainsborough Road from the school, Brenner said.

"Apparently there have been some issues with that particular spot for parents to drop off students, and some of the school staff were concerned that something like this would happen," Brenner said.

Laura Siegel, a Winston Churchill cluster coordinator and Churchill parent, said that parents are instructed via e-mail at the beginning of the school year not to drop their students off across the street from the school. However, traffic often backs up along Victory Lane in front of the entrance to the official drop-off point near the school's parking lot, Siegel said, and "people just don't want to wait in line."

Parents, she said, often line up along Gainsborough Road to drop off students, creating a traffic hazard as they pull to the side of the road and merge back into traffic. Students often cross Gainsborough on their way to the school outside of designated crosswalks, she said.

"I would like to hope that after [Thursday's] incident those people would not pull over to drop their kids off, but I'm sure it will still happen," Siegel said.