Olivia's mum Kelly Pic: Supplied
An inquest has been opened into the death of a four-year-old girl who neighbours said was run over by her mother in a terrible accident after being dropped off at her grandmother's house.
The Daily Mail reports that little Olivia Hicks is understood to have darted behind the car as it reversed down the driveway.
A woman who lives near the scene of the tragedy told the newspaper: "I was told the mother was reversing the car down the driveway and the little girl got in the way."
Another added: "Apparently the child gets dropped off with the grandmother when the mother goes to work.
"She usually runs inside the house but this time she went around the back."
Olivia was trapped beneath the car for nearly an hour before fire fighters freed her.
According to Biggleswade Today, the accident happened on Monday February 20 in Biddleswade, Bedfordshire.
An air ambulance took her to hospital where staff at first hoped she would recover when a scan revealed no broken bones.
But she died five days later as a result of brain damage.
Her mother, local government officer Kelly Quigley-Hicks, and father Graham Hicks, an investment adviser for Deutsche Bank, were at home yesterday but Mr Hicks said the family were too upset to talk.
"I am sorry, we have no comment to make," he said.
An inquest opened and adjourned by the Cambridgeshire coroner yesterday gave the primary cause of death as "catastrophic, irreversible brain injury".
A secondary cause was given as "injuries sustained in a road accident".
A Bedfordshire Police spokesman said a full investigation had been launched.
He added: "A four-year-old girl has died after being involved in a collision in Biggleswade on February 20.
"She was taken to Addenbrooke's Hospital for treatment and subsequently died."