FRANCISTOWN: A two-year-old girl was pronounced dead on arrival at Nyangabwe Referral Hospital after she was accidentally run-over by a car driven by a teenage student at Rethabile Junior Secondary School in Tonota this week.
The 15-year-old student caused the accident at a church service.
Traffic officer at Kutlwano Police Station, Superintendent Alison Mbaiwa said the accident happened at the International Pentecostal Holiness Church (IPHC). He said they have been informed the boy asked and got the car keys from the vehicle owner who was a church member and a family friend who had given him and his family a lift to church.
“It is said that the boy had asked for the car keys from the car owner in a request to drink water which was in the car. Upon arrival, the boy started driving the car around the church premises,” he said.
He added that there were other young children playing behind the car when the boy reversed and ran over the two-year-old girl. Church members heard screams and they arrived at the scene of the accident, they found the girl unconscious. She was rushed to Nyangabwe where she was certified dead upon arrival.
Mbaiwa said that the boy will be charged with causing death by reckless driving at a juvenile court. At the moment the boy is under psychiatrist evaluation.
Mbaiwa advised motorists to keep their car keys safe and stop giving under age children access to vehicles without supervision.
