The new school year got off to a catastrophic start for a young Florida girl who was accidentally run over by her mother’s SUV during morning drop-off, officials said.
The 12-year-old girl was struck at around 7:45 a.m. after she dropped her backpack, and some of her belongings rolled under her mom’s Lincoln Navigator outside Booker Middle School in Sarasota, Florida, Highway Patrol Trooper Kenn Watson told ABC Action News.
Unbeknownst to her mother, the preteen crawled under the SUV on her hands and knees to gather her things when her mother began to drive away.
“She immediately stopped when she heard her child scream,” Watson told the station.
The girl was airlifted to Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg after the freak accident, Action News reported. As of late Monday night, she remains in critical condition, according to Fox 35.
Neither she nor her mother were identified.
“Here we are, day one, and we’ve already had a tragedy,” Watson told Action News.
“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.”
The school offered counselors for students following the scary scene, and principal Lashawn Frost urged parents to “follow the designated drop-off procedures,” Action News reported, citing a message he sent out to parents after the incident.
“This is a tragedy that 100% could have been avoided by simply paying a little more attention and not being in a hurry,” Watson chided, according to the station.