A one-year-old girl has died after being run over by a cab driven by her grandfather in the Sivanagar area of Uruthirapuram, Kilinochchi.
The vehicle had been parked in the garden of the family home and the grandfather was reversing it when the child approached and was struck by one of its wheels, Ada Derana reported.
The girl was taken to Kilinochchi Hospital with critical injuries, but hospital sources said she had already died before she could be admitted.
Her body has been released to relatives following a post-mortem examination. Kilinochchi Police are investigating.
Context
Low-speed reversing collisions in domestic yards are a recurring cause of death among very young children, who are below the sightline of a driver looking through a rear window or mirror. Sri Lanka does not require reversing cameras or proximity sensors on private vehicles, and no national figure is published for driveway deaths involving children.
The death follows a teenager killed by a tractor at Rambawala tank and two youths who drowned in the Nanu Oya canal in the past week.
Not reported
Ada Derana did not give the time of the incident, name the child or the driver, or say whether the grandfather has been arrested or is being treated as a suspect. It did not say whether the death will be treated as an accident or referred for prosecution, or when the inquest is listed. No outlet reported whether other family members witnessed the collision.
This account rests on a single newsroom. The Daily Mirror, Hiru News and NewsFirst had not carried the report at the time of writing.
