3-year-old girl killed in accident

David Kihara

Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2005 | 10:44 a.m.

A two-vehicle crash at Interstate 215 and Losee Road killed a child who was just a few weeks shy of her fourth birthday and sent two men and another small child to area hospitals Tuesday night, the Nevada Highway Patrol said.

Authorities said witnesses and evidence at the scene indicated that a red Ford Explorer apparently failed to stop at a stop sign a little after 8 p.m., striking a brown Dodge Caravan with a man and two small children inside, troopers said.

"The at-fault vehicle is the Expedition, but that's not to say that the Dodge wasn't speeding," Trooper Robert Honea said.

A man and a 3-year-old boy in the van were taken to University Medical Center. A 3-year-old girl was pronounced dead at the scene.

The boy was reportedly in good condition, Honea said, adding that the relationship of the children to the driver of the Dodge was not yet established, Honea said.

The girl who was killed in the accident apparently was not in a child-safety car seat but was wearing a seat belt across her lap, Honea said, but added that the incident is still under investigation.

There was one child-safety car seat in the Dodge, and the boy was in that seat.

Under Nevada law, children up to the age of six or those weighing 40 to 60 pounds are required to be in child seats, he said.

The other passengers and drivers in both vehicles were wearing seat belts, he said.

The driver of the Ford was also taken to UMC and was reportedly in surgery, but his condition was also not known this morning, Honea said.

The coroner's office will release the name of the dead child upon notification of family members.

According to Honea, the Dodge was eastbound on I-215 and was approaching Losee. The Ford was stopped at a stop sign but then continued into the intersection and moved into the path of the Dodge, he said.

The Dodge then struck the center of the left side of the Ford, he said.

The three passengers in the Ford walked away from the accident and were not reported injured, Honea said.

Honea said there is no immediate evidence that alcohol or drugs played a part in the accident, but the highway patrol is continuing to investigate.

Traffic citations are pending completion of the investigation, he said.

Collisions at that intersection have not been common as far as Honea knew.

The collision closed down parts of I-215 for at least four hours. Authorities stopped traffic going eastbound on I-215 but kept the westbound lane open.