Indie Armstrong identified as Nambour shopping centre car park victim
THE six-year-old killed in a car park tragedy has been remembered by her friends and teachers at the primary school she attended with her sister, who was also injured in the crash.
QLD News
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THE six-year-old killed in a car park tragedy yesterday has been remembered as an “enthusiastic, loving, friendly young girl” by her friends and teachers at the primary school she attended with her sister, who was also injured in the crash.
North Arm State School principal Kelly Edgar said the school community was grappling with the death of their student and friend, Indie Armstong.
“North Arm State School community is deeply shocked and saddened by the death of one of our Year 1 students, Indie Armstrong,” Ms Edgar said in a statement issued by the education department.
“Indie was an enthusiastic, loving, friendly young girl who will be greatly missed by the North Arm State School community.
“Our thoughts and sincere sympathies go out to the family, caregivers, friends and loved ones during this difficult time.
“Support is being provided to students and staff, and guidance counsellors will remain at the school to provide support in any way they can and for as long as it is needed.”
OVERNIGHT:
A SUNSHINE Coast community is reeling and a family grief stricken after the shocking death of a six-year-old girl accidently run over in a shopping centre carpark by an elderly woman.
Indie Armstong was tragically killed when an 86-year-old woman lost control of her car and reversed into her. Also hit were her eight-year-old sister Lily and a 57-year-old woman believed to be their grandmother.
Tributes were on Sunday night pouring in for Indie, with a GoFundMe page set up to help her parents, Emily and Jason Armstrong, with medical costs and funeral expenses for their precious daughter.
“The local Yandina family Jas & Emily Armstrong have lost their precious daughter Indie who was only 6 years old. Their eldest Lily has suffered leg injuries and is in hospital currently getting treatment,” the page states.
“They are small business owners (North Buderim Butchery) on the Sunshine Coast and really just need some time to grieve and get through this extremely hard and heartbreaking time ahead of them.”
Friends posted that it was a “heartbreaking” time for the family describing Indie as a “very beautiful little girl”.
“Our house and our daughter who started prep this year in which Indi (sic) befriended her is heartbroken for Indi and her whole family,” Chloe Ginn wrote.
Cignall Tobacconist clerk Sandy Singh said he looked out of his shop window the moment a silver Subaru reversing out of a carpark began speeding uncontrollably.
“A lady who was in her 80s was going to stop but instead of stopping she accelerated and the car went like a bullet through the people on the pedestrian crossing, hitting the mother and her two kids,” Mr Singh said.
“There was a big bang when the car hit the pole and people were just screaming. Everyone just went crazy.”
Mr Singh said up to 70 people rushed to the scene but sadly the young girl did not respond.
The trio was crossing the road using a pedestrian crossing about noon when the elderly woman lost control of her silver hatchback and reversed into them on Mill Lane, outside Coles at Nambour Mill Village.
Witnesses said the vehicle spun quickly out of a carpark and did a backwards U-turn into a ute before knocking the woman and the eight-year-old to the ground, seriously injuring the child’s leg.
Witness Kassie Pocza said the mother of the children was distraught.
“All you could hear was just her crying and her saying, ‘my babies, my babies’,” she said.
Ms Pocza said a group of people huddled over the children performing CPR, while around them shoppers broke down.
“A woman (over) there that was catatonic,” she said. “She was on the ground. She was wailing. She couldn’t stand.”
She described the driver as “a mess”.
“She was shaking,” she said.
Mr Singh said Ms Armstrong and the driver were both in shock.
“I’m heartbroken to see the little kid suffering... it was pretty intense and everyone was crying, and the mother was in shock,” he said.
Cellarbrations bottle shop attendant Mark Ellis said he was around the corner from the accident but the centre was extremely busy.
“There were a lot of customers in the carpark, and I saw a lot of trauma, a lot of people walking past crying,” he said.
Footage of the scene shows a witness cradling the surviving girl’s head as she was placed in an ambulance.
In a heartfelt display of community spirit, a candlelight vigil was last night held in the little girl’s honour on a grassy hill next to the Coles store.
More than 50 people braved a chilly night in a show of support for the Armstrong family, and in a bid to make sense of the tragedy.
People have begun leaving tributes for a little girl who was hit and killed by a reversing car in the Nambour Coles car park this afternoon @couriermail pic.twitter.com/ikt5m76UZI
— Chris Clarke (@chrisclarkenews) June 17, 2018
Most of them were young families with children of similar ages to the victims.
Candles were held as the group walked over to the growing bunches of flowers left at the scene.
Vigil organiser Carey Holden said the people of Nambour wanted the family to know their hearts were with them.
“I just want the family to know we’re here for them,” she said.
The emotion was too much for one of the little girl’s family members, who left flowers before weeping against his partner’s shoulder.
The elderly woman behind the wheel of the car was not injured but was said to be in immense shock following the ordeal.
Police told her to stay in her dented silver hatchback as paramedics worked to save the child who lay behind it.
Police last night continued to investigate the crash.
The tragedy comes only three days after the death of a 67-year-old woman who was struck by a car while crossing the street at Browns Plains, in Brisbane’s south, on Thursday and less than a month after Anne-Marie Stent, 51, was killed after being struck by a bus as she was crossing Ann St in Brisbane’s CBD.
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