When did this incident occur?

The incident is recorded as occurring on January 23, 2026 on the DEPLOY registry. The date reflects the underlying real-world event, not the registry record's creation date.

Incident · Injury

Waymo robotaxi struck a child near elementary school in Santa Monica, prompting NHTSA investigation

A Waymo autonomous vehicle struck a child who ran across the street from behind a double-parked SUV near an elementary school in Santa Monica, California. The vehicle braked hard, reducing speed from approximately 17 mph to under 6 mph before impact, but the child sustained minor injuries. NHTSA opened an investigation into the incident.

Occurred 2026-01-23 · Waymo

Track Waymo robotaxi struck a child near elementary school in Santa Monica, prompting NHTSA investigation

Machine-readable surfaces

Markdown mirror: /incidents/injury-2026-01-23-waymo.md
JSON-LD: embedded in this page’s head
REST API: /v1/incidents/00cd02e7-034c-4bf0-8a20-9d5c71225648
Data documentation: /data
Query this programmatically: Deploy MCP

Sources (1)

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/29/waymo-nhtsa-crash-child-school.html

Status history

Active · 2026-07-06 · agent:depth

Common questions

What happened in Waymo robotaxi struck a child near elementary school in Santa Monica, prompting NHTSA investigation?: A Waymo autonomous vehicle struck a child who ran across the street from behind a double-parked SUV near an elementary school in Santa Monica, California. The vehicle braked hard, reducing speed from approximately 17 mph to under 6 mph before impact, but the child sustained minor injuries. NHTSA opened an investigation into the incident.
When did this incident occur?: The incident is recorded as occurring on January 23, 2026 on the DEPLOY registry. The date reflects the underlying real-world event, not the registry record's creation date.
Who was involved in Waymo robotaxi struck a child near elementary school in Santa Monica, prompting NHTSA investigation?: The incident is recorded as involving Waymo on the DEPLOY registry. No specific robot model is linked to this incident in the registry.
Has anyone responded to Waymo robotaxi struck a child near elementary school in Santa Monica, prompting NHTSA investigation?: No responses to this incident are recorded on the DEPLOY registry. Operators, manufacturers, or affected parties can submit responses to the editorial team; absence is not a guarantee no response was issued.
What is the current status of Waymo robotaxi struck a child near elementary school in Santa Monica, prompting NHTSA investigation?: This incident is an active record on the DEPLOY registry; no retraction or correction has been issued.

Methodology: Unreviewed · 1 source (no primary) · last reviewed 2026-07-06

Verification posture

Unreviewed

Low confidence

Review state

Stable

Last reviewed 2026-07-06

Sources by quality tier

1: secondary-established-publication; Established publication

The framework is documented at /methodology. Corrections at /corrections. Reviewer: DEPLOY editorial team.

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Canonical ID 00cd02e7-034c-4bf0-8a20-9d5c71225648