A 10-year-old Napier girl hit by a car in busy traffic was running across the road to join her friends.
Constable Marty Lack of the Hawkes Bay Road Policing team says the girl was with two friends and one had already successfully run across the normally quiet Wycliffe St when she also tried.
"There were three kids. One of them had already got across the road and I think she's tried to catch up with her, there was a lot of cars on the road. Luckily the car that hit her wasn't going very fast. So there's no issue with [speed] it's just when you've got a little girl and a car, they don't go well together."
Mr Lack says the crash occurred about 5.20pm when it was starting to get dark.
"It was that time of night, it was on twilight, and just got dark and she's just run across in front of a whole lot of cars and one of them has hit her. So nothing really in it, we're not after any other driver, we just want to make sure we've got any witnesses that might have seen it."
The young girl suffered a serious head injury after being knocked out. After being stabilised she was airlifted to Wellington Hospital for specialist treatment.
She was put into an induced coma on arrival and this morning remains in a serious condition in the intensive care unit.
The girl's parents had driven down to be by her side, he says.
Mr Lack says Wycliffe St wasn't usually a busy road but there was more traffic at the time as people were travelling home from work.
The vehicle involved did stop and police spoke to the driver, he says.
Anyone with information or who may have witnessed the crash that hasn't already spoken to police, is asked to contact Constable Lack on (06) 2113657.