A Detroit father was taken into custody Wednesday after police say the go-kart he was riding in careened out of control and struck a parked car, fatally injuring his 4-year-old daughter.
Autumn Young was riding with her father, Ollante Arvell Young, and her 5-year-old sister when the crash occurred around 3 a.m. Wednesday, according to FOX 2 Detroit. Authorities said the little girl suffered blunt-force trauma to her head and later died at the hospital.
After being treated for non-life-threatening injuries, the father was released — only to be arrested a short time later. It turns out the 29-year-old was driving the go-kart while intoxicated
“I don’t think he meant to harm his children, nothing like that, you know,” said Channing Strickland, who identified himself as the little girl’s uncle. “We’ve got 4-wheelers, go-karts, all that stuff. It was probably a normal thing, probably not that late at night or whatever, but you know it was normal stuff we always do.”
Young’s 5-year-ols was also banged up in the crash but didn’t require hospitalization, a police detective said.
A 2000 report cited by the New York Daily News showed that there were 113 confirmed go-kart related deaths of American children under the age of 15 in the 1990s. The open-wheel vehicles may or may not contain an engine and are typically powered by gravity if they’re motorless.
The go-kart recovered at the accident scene was equipped with a motor. Prosecutors said the vehicle had only one seat and didn’t have seat belts of headlights, Click on Detroit reported.
Young is now charged with operating while intoxicated causing death, two counts of second-degree child abuse, and two counts of operating while intoxicated with an occupant under the age of 16.
“It’s a sad situation,” Strickland told FOX 2. “Mistakes happen, but unfortunately it was kind of a bad, terrifying, stupid mistake that could’ve been prevented.”
Watch more in the video below.
