Video Shows Car Plowing into 2-Year-Old; Police Seeking Driver

Surveillance video released by La Mesa police Thursday shows the frightening scene of a white VW Passat station wagon plowing into a 2-year-old boy on Fletcher Parkway and continuing eastbound.

“We’ve had the video at least a few days,” police Lt. Dan Willis said in a news conference. “We’re seeking the public’s help in identifying the driver.”

If the driver didn’t know he or she had run over the child, “that’s one issue,” Willis said. “If he clearly did know and took off without stopping or trying to render aid or calling for help, that would be a crime punishable by up to four years in prison and a $10,000 fine.”

Shot by a wall-mounted camera operated by the Banbu Sushi restaurant, the video was taken about 7:45 p.m. Thursday. Two cars are stopped for a red light at Trolley Court as the white Passat, under a green light, strikes the boy.

The video also depicts two cars stopping in front of the child, apparently as shields, and more than a dozen onlookers rushing to his aid. Traffic continued in the other eastbound lane, with a posted speed limit of 45 mph.

The video wasn’t clear on whether the child was run over. But the boy came to rest about 30 feet from the point of impact—in the No. 1 lane of Fletcher Parkway in front of the Pravada apartments, said traffic Sgt. Peter Andersson.

The unidentified boy—who wandered away from his parents’ apartment on Buckland Street—is still at Rady Children’s Hospital with non-life-threatening head and spinal injuries, police said.

“Obviously [the parents] are very much in shock and troubled and are very hopeful for a full recovery,” Willis said.  “They want the driver of the vehicle to be found and talked to.”

La Mesa police asked anyone with information about the crash to call 619-667-1400 or contact Crime Stoppers at 888-580-8477.