Girl, 9, dead after being struck by pickup truck west of Edmonton

A young girl in Alberta is dead after police say she was hit by a pickup truck while riding a skateboard.

In a news release Tuesday, RCMP said they responded to an area of Spruce Grove, west of Edmonton, where the nine-year-old was struck.

Police said the girl had been sitting on a skateboard and rolling off a driveway when she was struck by a Dodge pickup truck just before 9 a.m. Monday.

The female driver of the truck was uninjured in the collision. Police remained on scene for several hours.

The investigation continues.

"You've got a busy roadway, residential area, and we do believe that there was some reduced visibility," Cpl. Troy Savinkoff, a public information officer for Alberta RCMP, told CBC News. He added that those may have all been contributing factors.

"We've seized the vehicle itself. We're going to look at speed, we're going to look at all these things are at play, as far as this investigation's concerned," he said.

Savinkoff said the driver remained on the scene and co-operated with officers. Alcohol is not a factor right now, Savinkoff said.

Fatima Jones, a neighbour who has lived in the area for four years, told CBC News that there are a lot of kids in the neighbourhood, and that her street is busy with vehicle traffic. 

"My heart is broken for the family. From one mother to another, it's hard," she said, fighting back tears. 

Charges have not been laid in the death, which came one day after another child was struck and killed by a truck in Calgary.

Police in that city said a two-year-old girl died after she was hit by a pickup truck Monday in the back alley of a home.