*Warning, the video you’re about to see is disturbing*
Police in Georgia is searching for a hit-and-run driver who struck a 9-year-old girl playing on her front lawn.
The family of the victim released a surveillance video, in hopes of helping police to catch the suspect.
Laderihanna Holmes was playing with another girl in her front yard, on Friday, March 29.
A black sedan jumped the curb in high speed and slammed into her, and the family’s home.
In the video, you can see several people rush outside to help.
The driver of the black sedan is seen slipping out the passenger-side door of the car and running away.
Laderihanna survived, but her family says she has critical injuries.
The other girl playing with her was not injured.
Child Road Safety
According to the U.N. World Health Organization: “Children are at risk for road traffic injuries for a number of reasons.
Younger children are limited by their physical, cognitive and social development, making them more vulnerable in road traffic than adults.
“Globally, around 186,300 children under 18 years die from road traffic crashes annually, and road traffic injuries are the leading killer of children aged 15-17 years worldwide. Two times as many boys as girls die in road traffic crashes. In addition, rates of road traffic death among children are 3 times higher in low- and middle-income countries than in high-income countries,” WHO says on its website.
Over 1,600 children below 15 years of age die in road crashes in the United States every year, according to the Association for Safe International Road Travel.
Getting hit by a car is the third leading cause of death for children worldwide in the age group of 5 to 9 years, according to PsychologicalScience.org.
Psychological scientist John Wann and his colleagues at the University of London conducted experiments to study the perceptual skills of children on roads in comparison to those of adults. They found that children’s ability to perceive a speeding car on road doesn’t match that of adults.
“Paradoxically, faster-moving cars appear to loom less than slow-moving cars, creating a dangerous illusion that speedy cars are not approaching,” the report said.
When the speed exceeds 25 miles per mile, children are more likely to be hit. “Not only do speedy drivers need more reaction time, now it appears that young pedestrians simply can’t see the cars coming in the first place. It can be a deadly combination,” the report said.
