12 year old Florida girl run over by mom on first day of school at Sarasota’s Booker Middle School as juvenile suffers critical injuries after she was accidentally struck by her mom’s SUV after getting on her knees to pick up dropped items. Parent may now face charges.
It all happened in a split second… A 12 year old Florida girl is in critical condition after she was run over by her mom’s SUV during her first day in school.
The juvenile was ‘accidentally’ struck by her mother’s Lincoln Navigator vehicle while being dropped off outside Booker Middle School in Sarasota on Monday.
The incident occurred after the girl dropping her backpack and some of her belongings rolling under her mom’s SUV vehicle just on 7.45 am, Monday morning.
Mom faces potential charges
The district’s superintendent said the girl crawled under the SUV on her hands and knees to gather her dropped items when her mom began to drive away. It was then that the pre-teen was struck.
‘She immediately stopped when she heard her child scream,’ Highway Patrol Trooper Kenn Watson told ABC Action News.
The girl was critically hurt and flown to a hospital.
Continued Watson: ‘Florida Highway Patrol wants to reiterate how incredibly important it is to make sure that you see your child, not only exit the vehicle, but then get out of the path of the vehicle and not make any type of assumption. Here we are day one and we’ve already had a tragedy.’
The Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) said the mother should have been paying more attention.
‘This is an incident where it wasn’t the speed of the vehicle that caused the injury, it was simply someone being in a rush and making an assumption and hopefully this child will be able to survive this incident,’ Watson reiterated.
‘This is a tragedy that 100% could have been avoided by simply paying a little more attention and not being in a hurry,’ Watson added.
The tragedy led to principal Lashawn Frost issuing a statement to parents, urging them to ‘follow the designated drop-off procedures.’
FHP is still investigating this case and it hasn’t said whether anyone will face charges.
Neither the 12 year nor her mother have been publicly identified.
