A couple of people have asked about this, and wonder why he hasn't been charged.
The child was walking on the edge of the road, along the white line (according to someone with him). If you look at the picture in the article, there's no shoulder:
But, note this is the picture on this article: http://www.wbtv.com/story/33467722/13-year-old-struck-by-vehicle-in-salisbury-airlifted-to-hospital
This is the picture on the "mobile" article: http://m.wbtv.com/wbtv/pm_131222/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=bz3KDAFg
The appears to be a shoulder, but I think it's a driveway. See the grass under the mailbox?
But, what I really wanted to explain: I went back to look at the sunset times for Salisbury, NC, on 2016-10-25:
http://sunrise-sunset.org/us/salisbury-nc/2016/10
Sunset was at 6:33 PM, and twilight ended at 6:59 PM. Per the article, the accident occurred just after 7:30 PM. So, it was fully dark, and the driver may have never seen the child walking along the edge of the road until it was too late.
However, I can't explain the time on the banner at the bottom of the second picture. It says "right now", with 5:02 on the right edge. 5:02 would have been before sunset, and the picture was obviously taken at night. Perhaps this is from a news report the next day, and they used the wrong banner?