Little Sofia was only a year and a half old. Sunny, happy, delightfully awkward and incredibly sharp, thirsty to discover, like her children of her age. And like every day she, together with her beloved grandmother ready outside the kindergarten entrance, she would return home to mom and dad, in the hinterland. But she never got there this time.
It was around 3.45pm, the time at which, at Little England, the children were leaving after the end of the activities. Located in via Caduti del Lavoro, in the city (in the Sant’Anna neighbourhood), the institute includes a nursery, nursery school and equal and bilingual elementary schools. Sofia Archetti was leaving the nest. Here’s grandma, hand in hand, as always. According to the findings – conducted by the Local Police of Brescia – they were still inside the school car park, walking, when suddenly a maneuvering SUV hit the little girl in reverse. A tremendous impact. The little girl was knocked over and remained stuck under the car. At the wheel, another grandmother. Who in turn had to collect his grandson who attends first grade. A daily life made of affection and sharing that in a handful of moments catapulted everyone to hell. The screams, the fear, the disbelief. And that little girl on the ground, lifeless.
Among the first to arrive was a doctor (one of the parents), as well as the owners of the institute. The rush to get a defibrillator and try everything to resuscitate Sofia: they tried for a long time. Even the 118 medics, who helped her when she was already in cardiac arrest. But it wasn’t enough. The little girl’s heart stopped definitively after arriving, in already critical conditions, at the pediatric emergency room of the Civil. The injuries sustained in the terrible crash were too serious. Her 80-year-old grandmother was also slightly injured: desperate and in shock, she was transferred to the nearby Sant’Anna hospital with trauma to her arms and legs.
The seventy-year-old driver from Brescia of the SUV, a Mercedes, was also in shock and also needed medical assistance. Incapable of realizing an unspeakable drama that took place in a fraction of a second. «He was screaming, that’s all. The important thing is that that little girl is saved, she can recover from a shock” are the words of her husband, who arrived after the accident. Unfortunately, the already imperceptible thread of hope that the miracle would really happen was torn shortly afterwards, at the Civile. It cannot be ruled out that the cause of the tragedy was a sudden moment of blindness caused by the sun in the driver’s eyes, or a problem with the management of the automatic transmission. It seems that the car park was full and that the lady had stopped in a spot reserved for disabled people and remained on board, ready to move if someone arrived. Then she would notice an empty seat. And she would have tried to reach him after moving in reverse, then a left turn and another maneuver. She was interrupted by that dull and terrible shock.
The owners of the school remained silent and preferred not to make any statements, “with full respect for the family, affected by this terrible tragedy”. The Prosecutor’s Office has opened a case and acquired the images from the video surveillance cameras installed in the car park.
