Toddler dies after dad reverses on driveway and she wanders into blind spot

07 March 2024 , 10:32

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Haniyah Bint Vaqas younis was hit on her driveway in Dewsbury last May (Image: Harriet Morphy-Morris)

A "healthy, happy and vibrant" toddler was killed when her father reversed over her with his car in a tragic accident.

Haniyah Bint Vaqas Younis was just 19-months-old when the car hit her on her driveway on Saturday May 21, 2023. The youngster had been playing in the back garden but decided to explore, and wandered along a side path and through an unsecured gate to the front drive. She then sat behind her dad's BMW Three Series parked in the driveway at around 10am. Where she chose to sit was directly in the car's rear blind spot. Her father then got into the car and reversed into his beloved child.

Though there were no eyewitnesses, Senior Coroner Martin Dominic Fleming said there was "extremely distressing" CCTV footage recorded by neighbours. Mr Fleming recounted the distressing scenes which followed as neighbours rushed to help poor Haniyah, reports the Yorkshire Live.

There were two doctors living on the street who rushed down to try and resuscitate her, after hearing a high-pitched scream from the girl's mother. They discovered Haniyah’s mother holding the little girl in her arms and noticed blood pouring from the little one’s nose.

They attempted to try and resuscitate the little girl before paramedics arrived. Haniyah was rushed to Leeds General Infirmary where unfortunately doctors weren’t able to save her, after finding no signs of cardiac output, despite performing CPR and using an incubation tube. Her death was recorded at 11.32am that day, and her official cause of death was listed as a traumatic head injury.

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While concluding the tragic case as an accidental death, Mr Fleming said: “Haniyah was a lovely, vibrant, healthy little girl. The great tragedy here is that there was nothing to alert the father to her presence.” The sensors to her father’s car had a fault due to a minor crash, prior to the incident, but even so, it was determined by West Yorkshire Police’s Collisions Investigation Unit that Hanniyah was so small, it was unlikely she would have have been picked up by them.

While the highway code states a driver should check their blind spot before reversing, the collisions unit clarified this was guidance, stating drivers were unlikely to look around the back of their vehicle each time they're setting off. Haniyah’s parents were not present at the hearing but her uncle Shabir Younis, who broke into tears at the end of the proceedings, was in attendance. Mr Fleming reflected on the parents' “great distress” and asked him to pass on his condolences.

Samuel Port