Investigators are calling the death of a child after being struck by her mother’s vehicle a terrible accident, the sheriff said.
One-year-old Ella Lee Hammons, who would have turned 2 next month, died after she was struck by a vehicle her mother was backing down the driveway of their Center Grove area home just before 5:30 p.m. Thursday, according to the sheriff’s office.
The mother, Ashley Daudy, 27, told police she didn’t see the little girl behind the vehicle and accidentally struck her. She cried when telling police what happened, saying, “I didn’t mean to run over my child,” according to the report.
Daudy tested negative for alcohol, which is a standard part of the investigation in a fatal accident.
Investigators talked with the family Thursday night and Friday morning, and have no reason to believe this was anything other than a terrible accident, Sheriff Doug Cox said.
“It’s a terrible accident, and nothing points to anything else,” Cox said.
An autopsy Friday also ruled the death accidental, according to the Marion County Coroner’s Office.
Sheriff’s deputies were called to the home in 4700 block of Walker Street, off Smith Valley Road, near Morgantown Road. Daudy had been backing a vehicle in the driveway to make room for another vehicle to get out, when the vehicle struck the little girl, the report said.
The girl’s father, John Hammons, told police they thought all the children were near the house when Daudy was backing up the vehicle. He said it was an accident, the report said.
When he saw his daughter on the ground, Hammons said he yelled for help. He picked her up and she was not responsive and he didn’t think she was breathing, the report said.
A neighbor came over to perform CPR for about a minute-and-a-half until emergency workers arrived.
Emergency workers planned to take the little girl to Riley Hospital for Children at Indiana University Health. But they diverted to Community Hospital South, where the little girl died of her injuries, the report said.
The autopsy showed the girl died of blunt force trauma to the head, according to the coroner’s office.
