6 year old girl killed after mom driving boat runs over her at Lake Pleasant, Arizona lake.
Tragic accident or negligence? A 6 year old girl was accidentally killed on Friday, when the child’s mother ran over the girl with a boat as she swam at an Arizona lake.
The young girl was swimming at about 11 a.m. at a cove on the northern part of Lake Pleasant called Paul’s Hideaway, a popular spot roughly 40 miles north of Pheonix, when the tragedy occurred, according to the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office.
Though there were 12 people — six adults and six children — aboard the wakeboard boat, none seemed to realize that ‘the child had somehow entered the water,’ police said according to 12 News.
6 year old girl suffered leg amputation
The girl’s mother put the boat into drive in order to pull her husband on a wakeboard when she smashed into her daughter, who was swimming in front of the boat.
The girl was ‘struck by the boat ran over and eventually got a prop cut to her leg,’ Sgt. Joaquin Enriquez said at a press conference.
Police said the father was in the water when he noticed ‘something in the water.’
‘He and the mother quickly realized their daughter was in the water and had suffered a leg amputation from the boat’s propeller,’ police said in a statement.
The family struggled to find cell reception to call 911, as the Paul’s Hideaway area is notorious for poor service, but nearby boaters helped load the injured girl into the boat and rushed her to shore.
The young girl was taken to a nearby hospital, where she was pronounced deceased.
A case of simply losing track?
Though the incident is still under investigation, law enforcement believes it was just a ‘tragic accident.’
All occupants had been wearing life vests, none appeared to be under the influence and all adults aboard appeared to be experienced boaters, Enriquez said.
‘Contributing factors that may have led to this incident is a lot of people on the boat,’ said Enriquez.
‘We do understand that what may have led to this was maybe they lost track of who was on the boat and who was not on the boat … is it anymore any different from you know, having a party at a house and losing track of your kids?’
Or as some have wondered, how much more could it have cost the family had they simply checked to see who was on the boat or not before moving forward, knowing full well that the consequences could be deadly….
