A 10-month-old baby recently died after falling out of her mother's vehicle and then being run over by it as it was left in drive, according to police.
The Prince William County Police Department said in a recent Facebook post that on June 12, officers were called to an area near Flotilla Way and Dyers Mills Ct in Woodbridge, Virginia, following reports of a "crash involving a child."
When police arrived to the scene, an investigation revealed that the driver of a 2013 Toyota Highlander placed her 10-month-old daughter in the back seat "unrestrained" while on her way to visit some family members in the nearby area. According to police, the driver drove "a short distance to a nearby dumpster," and then eventually drove back to a home near the 16600 block to pick-up some more family members.
However, as some of the driver's family members were getting into the vehicle, the unrestrained 10-month-old "fell from the vehicle and onto the roadway," police said in the Facebook post. Immediately after the 10-month-old fell out of the vehicle, the driver jumped out to help her daughter.
According to police, when the driver went to assist the child, the vehicle was never placed into park.
"The vehicle's transmission was still in drive when the driver exited the vehicle causing it to roll forward where it then struck the child," police said in the Facebook post.
Police said that the 10-month-old sustained a "serious head injury" from being run over by the vehicle and was transported to a nearby hospital shortly after.
"The child died as a result of her injuries later in the day. No other injuries were reported," police said.
The Prince William County Police Department said that under Virginia law, the 10-month-old's identity is not being released at this time. Police also did not release the identity of the mother but said that she was "was identified as a 35-year-old woman of Hyattsville, MD."
According to police, no charges have been filed against the mother at this time, but they noted in the Facebook post that the investigation is ongoing.
The Prince William County Police Department told Newsweek that they had no further comments at this time.
A somewhat similar incident happened in November 2021, when an 8-month-old fell out of a vehicle and was fatally run over. According to CBS News, the Irving Police Department in Texas said at the time that the 8-month-old was unrestrained in the car that was being driven by the child's mother. The child then fell out of the vehicle and was eventually run over by another driver, CBS news reported.
"We are not calling it a hit-and-run because we don't think the person that ran over the child knows they ran over that child. We are just asking that anybody that was in the area, around 10:30 Sunday morning, to definitely contact us," Irving Police Department Officer Robert Reeves said at the time, according to CBS News.
