Y-El Kbuôr was seven, keeping cattle, when a truck hit him and drove on

The driver knew he had hit the boy and did not stop. Y-El Kbuôr was dragged under the truck and lost his right foot. A second driver saw it, overtook, and forced him to stop.

The child this happened to

Y-El Kbuôr was born on 24 December 2015 in Buôn Čuôr Knia village. He has no father, and lives with his mother and his grandparents. The family is too poor to send him to school, so at seven years old he worked every day, keeping cattle for a wealthy Vietnamese household.

On 18 February 2022 he was walking home from that work when a truck hit him. The driver saw him and knew he had hit him, and did not stop. The boy was caught under the truck and dragged. He lost his right foot, which was left hanging as the truck kept moving. His left arm was broken and his head was bleeding.

Another driver, behind, saw the whole thing. He overtook the truck and forced it to stop. As soon as it stopped, the first driver opened his door and ran.

Getting him to a hospital

Within minutes adults from the village reached him and carried him to the urgent care nearby. The staff there said the wound was beyond what they could treat, and told the family to take him to the hospital in Buôn Ma Thuột.

For Dega people to get treatment, we must pay the hospital first.

He lay in hospital in pain. Families who cannot produce the money in advance are not treated, and his family is poor.

What we are reporting, and what we are not

This is the village’s account, given to us with photographs taken at the roadside. What we can state is the date, the boy’s age, his injuries, that the driver left the scene, and that a second driver stopped him. Whether the driver was ever charged, we do not know; no police involvement was reported to us at any stage.

Why it matters

A seven-year-old was working because his family could not afford school. He was maimed on the road home, and the man who did it tried to drive away. No officer came, nothing was recorded, and the first question his family faced was how to pay. We are told to accept that this is ordinary. We are asking the world to look at it and tell us why it should be.