BLOOMFIELD, Mo. - A Bloomfield toddler died late Friday afternoon after she was struck by a vehicle at her rural Bloomfield residence.
According to the Missouri State Highway Patrol, two-year-old Hali M. Rice was struck by a 2004 Pontiac driven by 20-year-old Jason R. Fields, also of Bloomfield, as Fields was backing from the toddler's residence on Highway E about one mile east of Bloomfield.
The toddler was pronounced dead at Missouri Southern Healthcare at 5:15 p.m. by Stoddard County Coroner Aaron Mathis.
Fields was reportedly backing north out of the residence when he struck the toddler. First responders, along with Stoddard County EMS, Bloomfield Police, Stoddard County Sheriff's deputies, and the Missouri State Highway Patrol, responded to the call at around 4:30 p.m.
Despite emergency personnel's efforts to resuscitate the child, she was pronounced dead after being transported by ambulance to Missouri Southern Hospital. An air evac unit was summoned to the scene of the accident, but after word was received that arrival of the air evac unit would involve about a 25-minute wait, it was decided the child would be transferred by ambulance to Missouri Southern Healthcare in Dexter. She was pronounced dead at the local hospital at 5:15 p.m. Rice's death marks the 13th fatality in Highway Patrol Troop E for the year 2012.
Fields faces no charges involving the accident.