The principal of Washington Middle School is urging motorists to drive with caution after two Washington seventh-graders were seriously injured when they were struck by a car after school Wednesday while crossing six-lane South King Street in or near a crosswalk without traffic lights.

Principal Mike Harano said he would urge motorists: "Be careful of all pedestrians, but especially around the end of school."

He added, "We don’t have JPOs, like the elementary schools, and no crossing guards.… This is an age where they’re not thinking clearly or paying attention, talking to friends."

Emergency Medical Services personnel responded to the accident at 2:15 p.m. and transported the 11-year-old girls by ambulance to the Queen’s Medical Center in serious condition, authorities said.

Police said the girls were crossing King near Punahou Street from the mauka to the makai side when a white four-door Buick sedan struck them.

An EMS radio transmission said the girls were thrown about 5 feet, and that the driver was traveling 20 mph.

The driver stopped after the incident.

When EMS arrived, one girl was sitting up and the other was lying on the ground, Harano said.

A Baskin-Robbins ice cream shop, a Subway restaurant and a shave ice stand are on the mauka side of the street, and students frequent them, Harano said. Many also live in the neighborhood and walk home, or go to the McCully Gym, he said.

"If we can get a light, I think that would be helpful," he said, but added there are a number of crosswalks without traffic signals on South King. If they remove the crosswalk, pedestrians would jaywalk, he said.

Harano said he has received varying reports from witnesses as to whether the girls were in the crosswalk.

Washington student Kim Acorda, 11, said, "The girl was jaywalking. She was running."

Harano said the school will pick up its campaign today to warn students again about the hazards of crossing the street.

"They think they’re bulletproof," he said.

A Washington student was injured in May 2010 while jaywalking on Punahou to get to the Jack in the Box restaurant.