In a pulse-jumping moment on La Espiral in Orinda Tuesday evening an Orinda dad realized he’d backed over his 6-year-old child after losing track of the child while exiting his driveway.
Deputies at the scene said the father briefly lost sight of the child while backing out his car around 6:20 p.m., realizing within seconds that the 6-year-old – who it was believed may have been playing in the driveway – was trapped in the undercarriage.
Firefighters from the Moraga-Orinda Fire Protection District were at the home in the 300 block of La Espiral in minutes, along with Orinda police officers, who worked to calm the parent while assessing the child’s condition.
Firefighters were able to extricate the child quickly, and examination at a local hospital revealed no serious injury had been done – though there’ll be a good story to tell later in life.
Police Chief Mark Nagel said the infant suffered “minor, non-life threatening injuries.” Officers deemed the incident a frightening moment that ended well.
How scary for the child and the dad. I can understand why the parent needed calming. As far as “a good story to tell later in life” – if it happened to me or my child, I think it’s healthier not to talk about it. Six years old is old enough to remember, and talking about it could re-traumatize the child. Even if there was “minor, non-life threatening injuries,” the child was still ran over by their dad.
Talk about and remember the good times…
@Danielle – Good advice, though we had an interesting comment on our Facebook page relative to this story, where the writer related being run down by his Dad at the age of two. Two broken legs. He says they joked about it years later but that there was still pain attached to the memory, as you say! Trauma, is trauma.