Teen driver without license runs over child in stroller

A 19-year-old youth without a driver's license is suspected of running over a 2-year-old girl in her carriage on Wednesday and then fleeing the scene, Jerusalem police said.

Police say the suspect told investigators that initially a friend was driving the car, in Jerusalem's Beit Israel neighborhood. His friend stopped and got out, at which point the suspect decided to get behind the wheel.

He allegedly lost control of the car in the Ramot neighborhood, hitting a 25-year-old woman pushing a baby stroller.

Eyewitnesses said the driver crushed the stroller, continued driving, stopped to look back, and then drove off.

The woman, who was the child's babysitter, was not injured, but ran home in panic.

"I saw a baby lying on the road next to a crushed stroller," said Aharon Pamp, a ZAKA volunteer who was first to reach the scene. "The neighbors told us he just hit the girl and kept driving."

The child had a severe head injury, and was taken to hospital sedated and on a respirator.

Police found the driver shortly after, in the car, in the nearby neighborhood of Mea Shearim.