MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A three-year-old girl is dead after being struck by a vehicle in Whitehaven Monday evening.
Police said officers responded to the pedestrian crash in the 1900 block of Tacoma Avenue where the toddler had been hit by an SUV after running into the street.
The little girl’s father was understandably too emotional to talk, but he did tell us his little girl Bella had more personality than he had ever seen in a child so young.
Gloria Plunket who lives two doors down from where the toddler lived says she sees kids playing outside all the time.
“I see the kids playing in the yard. I don’t really know the kids who they are, but I know the neighbor, their grandmother and it is just hate to see what happened because it is heartbreaking to see a child get hurt,” Plunket said.
Police said a total of three juveniles were hit by cars on Monday at different locations across the city of Memphis.
In 2021, Shelby County led the state in the number of pedestrians hit totaling 454, 62 of them died.
“We just have to remind everyone to please be alert when you drive,” Memphis Police Officer Louis Brownlee said. “Anticipate people and things coming out into the roadway. And when you drive through neighborhoods, drive extra slow.”
A neighbor said that speed bumps were installed after another child was hit in the same area years ago.
“Even though we have speed bumps they still speed through here all the time and I watch them do it,” neighbor Leon Jordan said. “They don’t drive slowly at all, some cars fly over the speed bumps.”
The driver that hit the toddler stayed on the scene.
