IT only took a minute but it left a young boy fighting for his life and a woman facing serious charges.
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A two-year-old was still in John Hunter Hospital on Sunday night after he was run over in the driveway of a Woodberry home on Saturday, leaving him with critical injuries.
The stomach-churning incident – captured on a neighbour’s CCTV security system – shows the young boy and other neighbourhood kids crowded around a Holden Commodore in the front yard of a Segenhoe Street home shortly after 6.30pm.
The other children walk away from the car, but the toddler is seen to walk behind it.
The car reverses before coming to a halt.
It’s too late – the boy had already been run over.
“It’s just horrific,” said Peter Dean, whose daughter was also playing in the driveway.
“We’re all just praying that he makes a recovery – it will be hard because his body is so small – but we’re hoping for a miracle.
“It was just a terrible, terrible accident.”
Another said: “It’s a tragedy – you think of what the parents would be going through.”
Police arrested the 22-year-old driver, who is not related to the child, at the scene.
She was taken to Maitland Hospital where she allegedly tested positive to having an illicit drug in her system.
She was later taken to Maitland police station and charged with dangerous driving occasioning grievous bodily harm, negligent driving, not reversing vehicle safely and altering the amount of illicit drug in fluid or blood.
We're all just praying that he makes a recovery ... we're hoping for a miracle.
- Friend Peter Dean
A friend said the driver was “traumatised” after the ordeal.
“She’s not in a good way at all,” he said.
“She didn’t mean to do this. It was an accident.”
Paramedics rushed the boy to hospital, while officers from the crash investigation unit began inquiries.
A devastated family member wrote on social media on Sunday afternoon the boy’s condition was still “touch and go”.
The driver was granted conditional bail and will appear in Maitland Local Court later this month.
Her bail conditions included that she must not occupy the driver’s seat of any vehicle or take any drugs other than those prescribed by a doctor.
She will front court on March 28.