Driver charged with DWI after child hit by car in Dunn dies

A child has died after being hit by a car in Harnett County on Monday night.

Posted 2:00 a.m. Apr 13, 2021 — Updated 7:49 p.m. Apr 14, 2021

Rosalia Fodera

, WRAL multimedia journalist, & Gilbert Baez, WRAL Fayetteville reporter

DUNN, N.C. — A child has died after being hit by a car in Harnett County on Monday night.

Dunn police identified the 10-year-old girl as Danay Sierra Allen.

Ronald Alphonso Fox, 67, was charged with driving while impaired, reckless driving and felony death by vehicle in the incident. He was being held in the Harnett County jail under $25,000 bond.

Dunn police said Allen was trying to get a dog that ran onto Spring Branch Road in Dunn.

"It was a situation where the child was trying to retrieve a family pet. The animal ran into the roadway, and the child followed," Interim Police Chief Clark White said Tuesday. "People across the street were able to stop the animal, and the mother called the child back is what we're told."

Police said a 2010 Smart car driven by Fox was traveling at a high rate of speed on Jackson Road, ran up on the sidewalk and across a dirt lot before hitting the girl and her mother's car.

"It's a tragedy in any community," White said. "This is something we all dread and hate to see and hope never happens, but unfortunately, it does."

Fox and the Allen's mother and brother, who were in the car Fox hit, were taken to a local hospital for treatment.

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