A Florida girl got off to a tragic start to the school year after she was accidentally run over by her mother’s SUV while dropping her children off at school in the morning, authorities said.
The 12-year-old girl dropped her backpack outside Booker Middle School in Sarasota, Florida, about 7:45 a.m., causing some of her belongings to roll under her mother’s Lincoln Navigator, which was struck, Highway Patrol Officer Ken Watson said. He told ABC Action News.
As her mother prepared to drive away, the girl, who was in her early teens, got on her hands and knees and crawled under the SUV to pack her belongings, without her mother’s knowledge.
“She heard the child screaming and immediately stopped her vehicle,” Watson told the station.
Following the freak accident, the girl was flown by helicopter to Johns Hopkins Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, where she remained in critical condition as of late Monday night, Action News reported. According to Fox 35.
Neither she nor her mother have been identified.
“It’s been a tragedy already on Day One,” Watson told Action News.
“We hope that this never happens again, but it’s important to remember to have good spatial awareness any time you’re in or around a school zone, and especially when you’re letting your child out of the car.”
Action News reported that the school provided counselors for the students following the horrific incident, and Principal LaShawn Frost urged parents to “follow designated drop-off procedures,” citing a message he sent to parents after the incident.
“This tragedy could have been 100 percent avoided with a little more caution and haste,” Watson said, according to the station.
