SARASOTA, Fla. (WSVN) –It was a horrific incident in front of Booker Middle School in Sarasota when a mother accidentally ran over her own child at the school’s drop-off line on Monday.
Authorities say the mother was driving a large SUV when she hit her 12-year-old daughter. The incident occurred after the child dropped her bag and some items fell underneath the vehicle.
Once the child bend down to reach the items she was no longer in the mother’s clear vision.
“Right outside Booker Middle we had a parent dropping off her student. The student did bend down to pickup something she dropped and the parent did accidently hit the child,” said Sarasota County Schools Superintendent, Terry Connor.
“She immediately stopped when she heard her child screaming,” said Kenn Watson with Florida Highway Patrol.
The mother was in the right turn lane in front of the school when the girl got out of the car.
The incident was grim start to the new school year, but authorities urge other parents to use this as a means to exercise more caution during drop-off and pick-up times and when driving in school zones.
“Here we are day one and we’ve already had a tragedy. We’re hoping this does not happen again, but we have to remember to have that good spatial awareness when you are anywhere around a school zone and most certainly when you are letting your kid out of your vehicle,” said Watson.
Crews airlifted the 12-year-old to All Children’s Hospital.
“This is a tragedy that one hundred percent could have been avoided by simply paying a little more attention and not being in a hurry,” said Watson.”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.”
The young girl sustained serious injuries and is still in the hospital trying to recover.
