A 4-year-old boy wandering on a California freeway was clipped by a truck after the driver tried swerving around him.
The boy, who was not named, was walking alone on an offramp from I-15 in San Diego on March 12.
The 29-year-old male driver, who was also not named and who was driving a 2000 Chevrolet Silverado, told officers that he saw the boy walking in the lanes as he was driving up the offramp while it was raining, reported CBS 8.
The driver told authorities he barely saw the boy through his passenger window. He said he thought the boy was a “ghost in a scary movie,” and tried swerving around him but still clipped the child with his headlight.
4-year-old boy wandering on I-15 freeway hit by truck https://t.co/tl5KifLIbg pic.twitter.com/GTHqaLd0Hv
— CBS News 8 (@CBS8) March 12, 2019
The impact shattered the headlight and knocked the boy down.
The driver immediately stopped and ran to the boy while another driver called 911.
“He did everything he could. He stopped. He did what he had to do. He stopped and contacted us,” said a California Highway Patrol officer.
Medics placed the child on a backboard with a neck brace as he cried and rushed him to Rady Children’s Hospital with major injuries. The boy’s mother, who had filed a missing person’s report, went to the hospital.
The boy’s condition wasn’t clear.
Officials told KGTV that they’re still trying to figure out why the boy was walking alone on the freeway. The incident took place just after midnight.
The driver was not believed to be drinking and was cooperating with authorities.
4-year-old remains hospitalized after being hit by truck while walking on I-15 offramp this morning https://t.co/L8MhJ1Gybm
— 10News (@10News) March 12, 2019
Other parents told KUSI that they didn’t understand how the boy could have been alone on the freeway.
“How long does it take for you to notice that your kid’s not with you?” one parent said.
Another, Kevin Miranda, wondered about the parents.
“There’s no excuse for that. To be honest, I guess the parents weren’t around,” he said. “They were probably on drugs right, you know? Just for that little kid to be wandering off like that, (the) parents had no responsibility.”
Toddler Wanders From House Dies After Getting Hit by Cars
A Utah man was arrested and charged with child abuse homicide after a toddler in his care escaped from a house and walked onto a busy road before being struck by two different cars.
Zayden, 2, died in January.
Michael Montgomery, 73, was arrested for child abuse homicide for the incident in Grantsville, reported Fox 13. Zayden lived at a house with his mother. Police went to the house multiple times in the year leading up to the death.
In January 2018, officers went to the home after he was found walking on the road, which has a 55 mph speed limit, alone.
The boy’s mother said she was smoking and left the boy with Montgomery when the child got out and made it to the road. She promised police and Department of Children and Family Services that she’d take certain steps to try to make sure a similar incident didn’t happen in the future.
In September 2018, a sheriff deputy responded after a driver found the boy walking in the middle of the same road.
The boy’s mother said that she had left Zayden in the care of Montgomery again; Montgomery said he was using a computer and hadn’t noticed the boy leave.
The next month, another driver spotted the boy walking alone on the road. Montgomery met a deputy and retrieved the boy. Montgomery said he hadn’t noticed the boy missing for a while.
Montgomery came out of the house after several minutes, “spanked him ‘hard,’ threw the child in the stroller, and took him back into the house,” according to charging documents obtained by KSL.
The day after Christmas, a deputy was dispatched to the area after a driver spotted the boy in the road alone. He was nearly hit by multiple drivers. Montgomery said he was in his shop and the boy escaped while he was there.
On Jan. 15, the boy escaped through a dog door after Montgomery told officers he fell asleep. The dog door had a padlock but Montgomery hadn’t secured it.
“The defendant stated that when he woke up, the victim was gone,” the charges state. “When asked how the victim escaped from the home, the defendant responded that the victim must have got out through the dog door.”
