Wandering 3-year-old is hit and killed on busy Florida road at 3:30 a.m., sheriff says
A man coming home from work around 3:30 a.m. hit something in a road and he circled back to discover a severely injured toddler, according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office.
The 3-year-old died at a Tampa hospital, officials said at a news conference.
It happened Thursday, July 6, on four-lane Sheldon Road, “a very busy roadway,” officials said.
“(Early) this morning our deputies received a 911 call that a toddler had been hit by a vehicle,” sheriff’s office communications officer Amanda Granit said during the news conference.
“The driver had just gotten off from work and ... he was on his way home when he realized he hit something. But he didn’t see anything in the roadway. So he did the smart thing and turned his vehicle around, and that’s when he made the horrific discovery that he had hit a toddler.”
Deputies found the 3-year-old “in the roadway” and arranged transportation to St. Joseph’s Hospital in Tampa, where the child died, officials said.
A search for the child’s home was launched in the surrounding neighborhood, which is a mix of single-family homes and apartments, Granit said.
“Our deputies immediately began to try and figure out why a 3-year-old was in the middle of the road at this hour of the night,” she said.
“Within an hour, our deputies .... were able to make contact with the parents. They found an open door at the Valencia (at Westchase) apartments, which is just about a quarter-mile away from the scene of the crash. At the same time that they found this open door, they also encountered the parents inside frantic, looking for their child.”
It was at that point that deputies informed them their child died at the hospital, she said.
An investigation is ongoing into how the child got out of the apartment. Charges have not been filed against the parents, Granit said.
No wrongdoing has been found on the part of the driver, who will not face charges, she said.
This story was originally published July 6, 2023 at 9:10 AM with the headline "Wandering 3-year-old is hit and killed on busy Florida road at 3:30 a.m., sheriff says."