A 4-year-old who was run over after a neighbor’s SUV crashed through a fence and into her backyard is recuperating with several broken bones as well as “road rash from head to pelvis,” said her father, Casey Barnes.
The accident in the 1600 block of West 135th Drive in Westminster occurred about noon Tuesday when the driver, 56-year-old Sosyma Zwierzynski, accelerated instead of braking, Westminster police said.
Barnes said he left his daughter Allie playing in the backyard with the family’s two dogs to go inside and get his 14-month-old son when he heard a “loud bang and crash.”
When he ran outside, Barnes said, he was confronted with the panicked dogs fleeing back inside.
He yelled for Allie, and she returned his call by screaming for her father. He said he found her curled up in a fetal position in the backyard.
“I ran over and scooped her up,” he said.
Allie was recuperating at The Children’s Hospital in Denver on Wednesday with a broken collar bone, broken upper arm and fractured elbow, her father said.
Zwierzynski told police her 2003 Toyota Highlander accelerated out of the garage when she put it in reverse.
After backing over her mailbox, Zwierzynski hit the accelerator, thinking she was applying the brakes, according to police.
Police said the vehicle crashed through the Barnes’ 6-foot-tall backyard privacy fence, hit the girl and then crashed through the fence a second time.
Zwierzynski told police that she then put the car in drive and it accelerated again, eventually crashing into and uprooting another neighbor’s tree. Police said Zwierzynski did not know she ran over the girl until she was contacted after the accident.
Westminster police found no indication that drugs or alcohol were involved.
Police charged her with careless driving resulting in bodily injury and also submitted a request to re-examine the issuance of her license.
“Accident investigators determined driver error and unfamiliarity with the vehicle were the primary contributing factors to the accident,” Westminster police said.
Staff writer Christopher N. Osher can be reached at 303-954-1747 or cosher@denverpost.com.
