A girl taking part in a Christmas parade has died after a driver lost control of a pick-up truck pulling a float.
The truck was pulling a float during the Raleigh Christmas Parade, North Carolina before striking the child.
Witnesses told WTVD-TV that people attending the Raleigh Christmas Parade heard the truck's driver screaming that he had lost control of the vehicle and couldn't stop it before the crash.
The girl struck by the truck was part of a dance troupe taking part in the holiday parade.
Horrified eyewitnesses heard screaming as parents rushed to get their children out of the way.
Driver Landen Christopher Glass, 20, was arrested and charged with reckless driving and other offences, Raleigh Police Department said.
Olivia Bruce, a 14-year-old member of the dance troupe, told The News & Observer that the truck almost hit her too.
"We started dancing in the parade, and then all of a sudden, we just heard a lot of honking. And when we turned back, we saw the truck almost on our backs, so we turned away," Bruce said.
An eyewitness, Christine Barnes, told WRAL-TV that girls in the dance troupe couldn't hear the driver honking the truck's horn over the music playing. Adults were scrambling to get the children out of the truck's path, she added.
"The girls were just hysterical," Barnes said. "It was really traumatising."
Barnes said the truck came within inches of hitting several other girls.
"The truck wasn't going that fast, but because the girls had no idea it was coming, they just couldn't get out of the way." she said.
Nobody else at the parade was injured in the crash.
Glass was one of three people in the vehicle towing the float at a low rate of speed, police said.
Investigators interviewed Glass, who was charged with misdemeanor death by motor vehicle, careless and reckless driving, using improper equipment, unsafe movement, and carrying a firearm in a parade.
The names and age of the girl wasn't immediately released.
"Our hearts go out to the family of the victim and those who witnessed this tragic incident," police said.
Raleigh Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin expressed her condolences for the girl's family and friends.
"Today started off with such joy.," the mayor tweeted. "My heart was so full. And now it aches for the young girl hit in a tragic accident on the parade route."
