3-year-old riding tricycle dies after hit-and-run driver crashes into her, NC cops say
UPDATE: A Henderson County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson later identified the girl as Andi Lynn Blair, who would have turned 4 years old on Thursday.
ORIGINAL STORY: A 3-year-old on a tricycle died after a hit-and-run driver slammed into her in Western North Carolina, officials said.
The girl was riding around a cul-de-sac when a car hit her at about 6 p.m. Saturday, according to the Henderson County Sheriff’s Office.
First responders arrived within five minutes of the 911 call and found the child had died at the crash site, officials said. The sheriff’s office didn’t share the girl’s name in a news release.
Deputies said the crash happened on Pleasant Court in Flat Rock, a town in the mountains roughly 30 miles south of Asheville.
The driver accused of leaving the scene of the crash was later identified as Aaron Santiso, 30. Officials in a news release didn’t list an attorney for him.
“Shortly after receiving the hit and run information, a Henderson County officer stopped a vehicle matching the suspect vehicle just north of the South Carolina state line,” the sheriff’s office wrote Monday in a Facebook post.
Santiso was arrested, and state troopers charged him with “one count of felony hit and run with injury or death, one count of felony death by vehicle, and one count of driving while impaired,” the Facebook post said. He was in jail as of Monday as the investigation into the crash continues, according to officials.
A representative from the N.C. State Highway Patrol didn’t immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for additional information on Tuesday.
This story was originally published August 24, 2021 at 8:51 AM with the headline "3-year-old riding tricycle dies after hit-and-run driver crashes into her, NC cops say."
