Woman, 87, is knocked over and killed by five-year-old studying to trip a bicycle

A father has been cleared of criminal liability after his five-year-old son knocked over and killed an 87-year-old woman while learning to ride a bicycle in Italy.

The child hit the unnamed woman as he was learning to ride his bike without stabilisers in a park in Milan.

The crash caused the victim to lose her balance and fall before hitting her head.

Investigating judge Luigi Iannelli has now agreed to archive the 2023 case after finding the child’s father, who was at his side at the time, not liable of manslaughter.

He faced paying out 200,000 euros (£168,000) if found liable. 

The court eventually found that the speed and ‘unfortunate randomness of the event’ did not give the father time to intervene.

Italian news agency ANSA had reported at the time that the boy ‘lost control of the bike’ and hit the woman ‘at a moderate speed’.

Stock image. The father of a boy who knocked over an 87-year-old woman was cleared of criminal liability 

‘At the time, the consequences of the accident did not seem serious and the boy’s father almost insisted that an ambulance be called,’ ANSA reported.

‘Later, however, the situation worsened: the lady lost consciousness and died in hospital.’

Prosecutors had sought to pin criminal liability on the child’s father, citing manslaughter law that ‘not preventing an event, which one has the legal obligation to prevent, is equivalent to causing it’.

He was also expected to have to compensate to the tune of ‘around 200 thousand euros’, per ANSA, unless able to prove that he was ‘unable to prevent the act’. 

The investigating judge in Milan rebuffed the idea that ‘everything is predictable and avoidable, and where every misfortunate turns into injustice, with the consequent rejection of the concept of “fatality” and the consequent search for blame at all costs’, as reported by Corriere della Serra today.