Montgomery: A woman in the US state of Alabama has been charged with child abuse after she accidentally ran over her seven-year-old son with a car while making him walk home from school as a form of punishment, Fox News reported citing the Boaz Police Department. The incident happened on February 9 when Sarai Rachel James, 27, picked up her son from school in Boaz, Alabama.
According to police, James was told that her son had been sent to the principal's office because he had gotten in trouble earlier in the day. As punishment, she stopped her car a little distance away from the school and made her son get out to walk or run the rest of the way home.
While he walked, James drove beside her son for a few blocks, but as she slowed down, the boy tried to grab the door handle of the car. Boaz Chief of Police Michael Abercrombie said when James accelerated, her son was pulled under the car and ran over with a rear tire, according to local media. Investigators said they believed it was an accident, but Abercrombie said it would have never happened if the boy had not been punished.
Police said the boy was in stable condition and was brought to the University of Alabama hospital where he was being treated for abrasions on his back and the side of his head. “It was a miracle he was not hurt worse than what he could have been," said Abercrombie said.
On the other hand, James has since been charged with aggravated child abuse and was released on a $50,000 bond three days after being arrested, according to jail records. She is reportedly forbidden from contacting her son. A 53-year-old woman, who police did not name, was also reportedly in the car at the time of the incident. She has been charged with endangering the welfare of a child and was released on $500 bond, according to the Independent.
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