11-year-old girl dies in scooter crash in Smiltene municipality

An 11-year-old girl has died in a traffic accident on a dirt road a few kilometers from Ape, in Smiltene municipality near the border with Estonia. A criminal case has been opened into the incident, Latvian broadcaster TV3's programme "Degpunktā" reports.

According to police, the child lost control of the scooter she was riding and crashed. No other vehicle was involved. Candles and flowers have since appeared at the site in her memory.

Questions over how a child obtained the vehicle

The case has raised questions about how such a young child came to be driving a scooter, since in Latvia a license for this type of vehicle can only be obtained from age 14. Valda Gibele-Lesiņa, head of the Northern Vidzeme unit of the State Police's Vidzeme regional department, stressed that in such cases the primary issue is parental responsibility — children should not be allowed to operate vehicles at such a young age without proper skills, the correct license category, or a helmet.

Police noted that the girl is the second-youngest driver of a motorized vehicle to have died on Latvia's roads since 2000. The youngest was a seven-year-old child who died in 2012 while riding a moped.

Local residents struggle to believe the news

News of the tragedy spread quickly through the area, and residents say they still find it hard to accept. Salvis, an acquaintance of the girl's family, described them as a family with many children with whom relations had always been good, without complaints.

A relative of the girl, Nauris, spoke of the tragedy with visible grief, saying she had her whole life ahead of her. Her body has been taken to Valmiera, where a forensic examination will be carried out.

Police continue to investigate the circumstances of the accident, including how the child came to be driving the scooter.