Toddler dies after being struck by vehicle near Laurel, Maryland
BALTIMORE -- A toddler has died after he was struck by a vehicle near Laurel, Maryland, on Wednesday.
The 23-month-old boy sustained life-threatening injuries when an SUV hit him in a commercial parking lot around 5:30 p.m.
Officers were sent to the 3600 block of Laurel Fort Meade Road to investigate a report of a person who had been struck by an automobile, according to authorities.
They learned that the toddler had walked within inches of the front of a Pathfinder.
They learned that the driver moved forward without realizing that the child was in front of the vehicle, according to authorities.
More than 100 children are injured or killed by vehicles in parking lots, driveways and alleyways every week, according to Amber Rollins, the director of the nonprofit Kids and Car Safety.
Since 2018, federal law has required that all new cars in the United States be built with backup cameras.
However, the number of children who are struck by the front of a car has continued to skyrocket, Rollins said.
"There's a few contributing factors," she said. "Number one, we are all driving bigger vehicles and they're designed differently. Seventy-five percent of new vehicles sold in the United States now are big SUVs and trucks. And so, the bigger the vehicle, the bigger the blind zone. You can see better driving down the highway, but you can't see what's in front of you."
