ALLEN COUNTY, Ind. (WOWO) – The Allen County Sheriff’s Department says that a child died Tuesday night after being struck by a vehicle backing out of a driveway.
Officers responded to the 4500 block of Bass Road shortly before 8:30 p.m. The preliminary investigation indicated that an adult was driving the SUV when the child was struck.
The child was taken to a local hospital in critical condition and later pronounced deceased.
As of May 12, the Allen County Coroner’s Office identified the pedestrian struck as one-year-old Wayne Merritt of Fort Wayne. The cause of death is blunt force injuries due to motor vehicle versus pedestrian cash. The manner of death is an accident.
Merritt is the 16th motor vehicle fatality for Allen County in 2023.
The incident remains under investigation.
1 comment
My heart aches for the family of this child, and for the driver of the SUV. **
I hope that you can all find helpful options to get thru this time of grief. Fort Wayne has some very good counseling choices for both children and adults. Many of which i would personally stand behind.
As for this article..
This story, sadly, is still a reoccurring nightmare for parents.
When Drivers Education resided in my local school system, our instructor constantly reiterated, “Walk completely around your vehicle before getting in.”, “Observe your surroundings for obstructions, and inspect your vehicle for damages; Ones that might make it inoperable.”
It was mostly just regular common-sense advice, however, he backed-up with actual events. Most his experiences were told in a light-hearted fashion, but they all continually circled back to main point… “Walk completely around your vehicle before getting in.”
He didn’t dwell on it, but he did have a couple instances that he brought to the table, ones of severe injury and death. Running over a child, was one. He gave a location and the family it happened to. He wanted us to know that this is real; that it can happen at any time; that it could happen to any one of us.
During these retellings, he would have our tiny classroom in total silence.
After a small moment in time passed, he spoke softly.
“Please, guys.. it only takes half a minute to ‘walk completely around your vehicle before getting in.'”
I’ll never forget it. I hope this will help remind others to do the same.
I truly hate to hear of these news bits.
** Today, i thoughtfully left out my personal angst towards SUV’s