A Texas family is mourning the death of an 8-year-old girl, who passed away after she was struck by a hit-and-run driver.
The girl was walking with her sister and brother at the time she was hit. Officials with the Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Office said the driver, a 39-year-old woman, confessed to hitting the girl, leaving her with serious injuries. Authorities said the driver ran a stop sign.
The child was airlifted to a hospital in downtown Houston and later was pronounced dead.
“That car just missed the other two siblings,” the county sheriff said.
Law enforcement officials said the driver told deputies that she was aware she had struck someone, adding she left the scene of the crash because she had a suspended driver’s license and was scared.
The sheriff said he was struck that the driver did not ask about the little girl, adding the woman had “very little sympathy and quite honestly very little remorse. There’s really no remorse.”
Once the woman left the scene, she went on to become involved in a minor crash 12 minutes later, rear-ending another car. The driver of that other vehicle took photos of the woman and her Nissan Altima, which the sheriff’s office spread through social media. A member of the woman’s family led authorities to her, and she was taken into custody.
The woman was held on $100,000 bond on charges of felony failure to stop and render aid in the second degree.
The woman’s case will be heard in the court system, but the girl’s family could bring a wrongful death case against the driver. The family has medical and funeral costs to pay as well as, perhaps, counseling for the girl’s siblings who witnessed the crash.
