By Marion Ali, Assistant Editor
A two-year-old toddler was crushed to death on Saturday evening in front of her house in Teakettle village, Cayo, and the incident has left the family devastated and her aunt who was driving the vehicle, bitter.
The incident happened when the baby, Sophy Reyes, went around the vehicle to be with her father, who had just finished talking to her aunt. Elba Cruz, 30, a finance officer of Teakettle village, was reversing her Ford Escape SUV and knocked down the baby, who had just left the spot in the yard where she was playing with other children, to go to her dad’s side near the vehicle. No one saw when the child slipped away from under the house and ran onto the street because the rest of the family members were inside the house preparing food for the child’s grandmother’s birthday dinner on Sunday.
area in front of family home where child was killed. Images courtesy: Plus TV
Elba Reyes had just delivered a gallon of oil to her brother-in-law, Clifford Reyes, who is the child’s father. He needed the oil for his vehicle which he had just finished repairing and had just walked over to his truck to get a $50 bill to pay her back for the oil. While she was reversing to go change the money, however, she inadvertently knocked down the baby.
Neither Elba nor Clifford had seen that the baby was knocked down and were only made aware when two men who were travelling on motorcycles blew their horns to get their attention and told Elba that she had just run over the baby. When the Cruz’ went around the back of the SUV, they saw little Sophie lying motionless on the dirt road.
Clifford Reyes told the media that he ran and picked up his little girl and saw blood gushing from her mouth, nose and ears. He said he tried to talk to her and get her to respond, but she only took two deep breaths and went limp. The family rushed the baby to the Western Regional Hospital, but she was pronounced dead minutes later.