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A grey Nissan Rogue crashed into a tree northbound near the corner of Tyrone Boulevard and Norfolk Street in St. Petersburg, Pinellas County, Florida, United States at around 1:00 p.m. on July 31, 2021. The driver was trying to overtake another vehicle but lost control.

Two adults, two juveniles and two toddlers were in the Nissan Rogue at the time of the crash including Maliyah Waters, 18, Mar’ion Heatley, 16, and Williah Waller, 1. The car seat was not installed properly and none of the passengers was wearing a seatbelt.

Both Heatley and Waller were pronounced dead after the crash. Waters was treated at the scene while the other passengers were taken to the hospital.

Waters was not the driver of the Nissan Rogue but the St. Petersburg Police Department arrested her because she allowed children in her care to ride in an improperly restrained vehicle. She was charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child and child abuse/aggravated battery with great bodily harm.

“We cannot emphasize enough the importance of wearing seatbelts and of properly restraining children,” WFLA quoted St. Petersburg Police Department public information officer Sandra Bentil as saying. “It’s devastating anytime people are hurt in a crash, and especially to lose two children in a crash is a tragedy.”

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Produced by the Japanese automobile manufacturer Nissan, the Nissan Rogue is a compact crossover sport utility vehicle. The 2008 model made its debut in October 2007.

The Nissan Rogue is currently the best selling vehicle in the U.S. It is manufactured at the Nissan Smyrna Assembly Plant in Tennessee, USA while some variants were built at Nissan Shatai’s Kyushu Plant in Fukuoka, Japan and at the Renault Samsung Motors plant in Busan, South Korea.