A toddler was killed and a young girl and a woman were injured Monday when the driver of an SUV reversed into the group as they sat on the front steps of a residence in Long Beach.
Officers responded shortly before 11:30 a.m. to the 400 block of Maine Avenue to reports of a crash involving a vehicle and three pedestrians, according to the Long Beach Police Department.
The victims were identified as a woman and two girls who were struck by the vehicle and taken to a hospital.
The most seriously injured patient, a female toddler, was quickly driven to a hospital by Long Beach police, but the girl died, police said.
Long Beach Fire Department paramedics took the woman and the other injured child to a hospital with undetermined injuries. Both had stable life signs, officials said.
Police said the motorist who struck the group was backing up the SUV, possibly trying to turn around, when the vehicle jumped the curb. The driver remained at the scene and was questioned by police. It was unclear if he was taken into custody or if drugs or alcohol played a role it the crash.
Nearby resident Alisa Hill told OnSceneTV that she ran outside after hearing a “blood-curdling” scream, and saw the woman pinned between the vehicle and a wall. She said the young girl had a gash on her leg.
“There was the white car backed up all the way onto someone’s front porch that they were hanging out on,” Hill said.
She said the driver was reversing the vehicle when the crash occurred.
“You know sometimes you switch pedals? Instead of braking, he gassed, and he gassed it enough and pinned that person up against, in between the wall and the car,” she said. “They chill on the porch a lot.”