Mother playing 'chicken' with her kids fatally strikes son with SUV

A woman in the US is accused of killing her 3-year-old son after running him over with an SUV during a game of "chicken".

Lexus Stagg was seen in CCTV footage driving towards her three children as they ran towards the Lincoln Navigator SUV.

Two of the children then ran out of the vehicle's path, but Stagg's 3-year-old didn't move in time and was struck by the SUV.

According to police, the child was caught under the right tyre. Stagg didn't stop and the toddler was hit again by the rear tyre.

He was taken to the hospital by ambulance but later died.

Stagg initially told police she thought she hit a speed bump.

The 26-year-old Texas woman was arrested and charged with criminally negligent homicide in the boy's June 11 death, Harris County prosecutors said in a statement Friday.

"Cars aren't toys and playing chicken with your kids isn't a game," Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said in the statement.

"You should be playing peek-a-boo with a 3-year-old instead of forcing him to try and dodge a 5600-pound deadly weapon," Sean Teare, chief of the district attorney's vehicular crimes division, said.

Stagg faces up to 10 years in jail if convicted.