A 20-year-old driver who allegedly lost control of a truck that hit and killed a girl participating in a Christmas parade in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Saturday morning was identified by police later in the evening.
The truck was pulling a float that was in the parade behind girls with the CC & Co. Dance Complex.
The driver was identified as Landen Christopher Glass, 20. He was arrested for misdemeanor death by motor vehicle, careless and reckless, improper equipment, unsafe movement, and carrying a firearm in a parade.
RALEIGH CHRISTMAS PARADE HALTED, GIRL DIES AFTER BEING HIT BY VEHICLE
“The girls kept dancing, and then very quickly parted as the truck moved through them. There were more dancers beyond this group. We were all, I think, wondering if it was part of the parade,” a woman who saw the accident told WRAL-TV.
Glass was shouting that he couldn’t control the pickup before it crashed, witnesses said.
Another bystander said she saw the girl on the ground with a blanket covering her. Others reported hearing tires screeching, screaming, and the vehicle’s horn blaring at the time of the accident.
“We started dancing in the parade, and then all of a sudden, we just heard a lot of honking,” fellow dancer Olivia Bruce, 14, told the News & Observer. “And when we turned back, we saw the truck almost on our backs, so we turned away,” Bruce said.
The victim’s name has not been released.
