PONTIAC, Mich. – A 20-month-old toddler was gravely injured Wednesday in Pontiac when she walked down the sidewalk and got hit by a neighbor backing out of their driveway.
Oakland County deputies said the incident was a horrible mistake. It happened on Warwick Drive near the intersection of Walton Boulevard and Telegraph Road.
Emergency medical officials arrived at the scene and rushed Eliana Culberson to Royal Oak Beaumont Hospital in critical condition.
UPDATE: Eliana has died due to her injuries, her mother says
"I'm always looking as a mother," resident Alexandra Roberts said. "There are kids everywhere, always kids everywhere."
Roberts said she's on high alert when she drives in the small Pontiac subdivision because there are children up and down Warwick Drive. She said she's always worried about a child running into the street.
But around 8:45 a.m. Wednesday, a 40-year-old mother who lives on the street was working to fill a flat tire with air. Her back was turned and her daughter, Eliana, started wandering away.
Eliana walked down the sidewalk, and when she was about two houses down, a 47-year-old woman was backing up her black Chevrolet Equinox and hit Eliana on the sidewalk, police said.
There were four other residents in the SUV, ages 18, 9, 6 and 5. Nobody in the Equinox was injured, police said.
The crash is still under investigation, Oakland County deputies said.