Tragedy as girl, 3, run over by mum's car at birthday party
A three-year-old girl has been accidentally struck and killed by a car in a park.
Cathalina, 3, was behind the SUV as it pulled up to a park in Luzerne County, in the US state of Pennsylvania, on Saturday (local time).
The family was gathering to celebrate the 18th birthday of the toddler’s aunt when tragedy struck, according to US news outlet WNEP.
Relatives of the little girl who were at the park told the publication they didn’t know how she ended up behind the car being driven by her mum.
Cathalina, who was known as Lina, was pronounced dead at a local hospital following the incident.
Witness Steven Olivares told the publication chaos broke out after the little girl was hit.
“A lot of people were screaming, a lot of children were just confused. It was scary,” Mr Olivares said.
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“The witness that saw what happened was in tears, his children were in the park. It was bad, it hit me pretty hard.”
Lina’s aunt told the publication her niece was “always smiling, beautiful and smart beyond her three years”.
Locals reportedly have long held concerns for children who played at the park, saying drivers would speed along the adjacent road and ignore a stop sign.
“They [drivers] go through the stop sign, there's a lot of kids, this is a park right here. They're always speeding,” one neighbour said.
On Sunday, family gathered at the park once again to mourn the loss of Lina.
A makeshift memorial was erected and balloons were released into the sky to symbolically celebrate her life.
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