OVERLAND PARK, Kan. — A babysitter says that she’s filled with regret after a toddler she was watching was run over by a vehicle in an Overland Park apartment complex parking lot on Sunday.
“I don’t think I can sleep tonight. Its just too much because I feel like its my fault,” said Cadejah Hopson.
Hopson says that she was watching her 1-year-old cousin when a friend dropped them off at the Princeton Court Apartments parking lot in the 9600 block of West 87th Street around noon on Sunday. Hopson told FOX 4 that as her friend was about to pull away, she told him that she couldn’t find the little girl—but that he backed up the vehicle anyway, hitting the child who had apparently wandered behind the vehicle.
“I set her like right here by this car and she just got out back, but thought she was over there or something. But she was back there,” said Hopson. “I had got out and he was driving backwards and he like hit her, and she, like, flew. It was like the whole side of her head, a whole chunk of skin had came off.”
The little girl was taken to Children’s Mercy Hospital in critical condition with a skull fracture and facial injuries, but police told FOX 4 that the child’s injuries were not as life-threatening as first thought.
Hopson says that the friend who was driving admitted to her that he was high at the time of the accident.
“He just came up to me and said, ‘I am so sorry, I was high.’ That’s what he said,” said Hopson.
Overland Park Police confirm that Hopson told them that the driver was high, but they say that there were no obvious signs of impairment. However, they are taking a blood and urine sample from the driver—which is standard procedure in the event of a serious accident.
“He said he was sorry, but I don’t forgive because if you were high why would you come and get me?” said Hopson.
Residents who saw the accident say it was devastating.
“The ambulance went off with the sirens, so I’m just hoping the kid is okay,” said neighbor Steven Tucker.
Police say that as of now nobody has been charged in connection to the accident, which remains under investigation.