ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) -- The Florida Highway Patrol says a 4-year-old boy with special needs was fatally struck by a car after he left his parents' motel room and wandered onto a nearby road.
Sgt. Kim Montes said in a news release a 56-year-old man was driving just after 2 a.m. Friday when he struck something along the dark road. He stopped and found the child dead.
The boy was wearing mismatched shoes and a T-shirt. Montes says troopers followed small footprints in the dirt to a nearby Extended Stay America motel. They noticed a side door cracked open and went inside, finding a motel room door that was not completely shut.
Troopers awakened the parents, who said the boy had special needs and they weren't aware he had left. The mother lives in New York.
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This story has been edited to say that the boy's mother lives in New York, not the family.
