1-Year-Old Hit in Driveway Dies

A 1-year-old girl was fatally struck by a car backing out of a driveway early Saturday, police said.

A neighbor said Miriam Juarez apparently walked out of her house unnoticed by her mother and was standing in the driveway at 8:45 a.m. when a 1994 Chevrolet Blazer backed from a house behind the Juarez family’s out the shared driveway toward the street.

Ramon Lopez, who lives two doors away, said the girl’s father, Jesus Juarez, was working on his car in the driveway, but did not notice she was nearby until after the car had hit her.

“I was coming out when I saw him with the little baby in the hands,” Lopez said.

Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics took the girl to Holy Cross Hospital in Mission Hills, where she was pronounced dead of massive head injuries, Fire Department spokesman Brian Humphrey said.

LAPD Officer Bill Rice of the Valley Traffic Division said that after a preliminary investigation, police had no immediate plans to seek charges against either the parents or the driver of the vehicle, Jose Melendez Jr., 34, of Lancaster.