A four-year-old and a seven-year-old allegedly took their parents' car while the adults slept and plowed into a woman walking her dog in an Oakland crosswalk, leaving her in critical condition.

The white sedan tore through the neighborhood on Thursday, struck the woman at what one witness estimated was at least 60 miles per hour, sideswiped a parked vehicle, rolled over a median, and finally slammed into a fence just a few blocks from the boys' home. The woman, described only as being in her 30s, lost consciousness immediately. Two good Samaritans performed CPR on her until first responders arrived.

Both boys were found outside the wrecked vehicle after the crash. Oakland police said the children were taken to a hospital in stable condition. The airbag had deployed with enough force to throw one of the boys into the back seat. The woman was rushed to the hospital in critical condition. Her dog, remarkably, was not injured and ran from the scene.

Witnesses heard the boys admit they stole their mother's car

Lavelle Shah-Marquis, who ran to help the children after the crash, said she heard the boys talking about taking their mother's car. She described the airbag's impact on one child in stark terms.

The Daily Mail reported Shah-Marquis's account of the force involved:

"hit [one of] the children so hard, it put him to the backseat."

Shah-Marquis did not hold back about who she believed bore responsibility. She directed her frustration squarely at the parents:

"These parents need to be held responsible. You have someone here that literally could possibly lose their life off the account of being irresponsible."

Anthony Hudson, another witness, estimated the sedan was traveling at least 60 miles per hour when it struck the woman in the crosswalk. He described the scene as devastating. Bystanders worked frantically to keep the victim alive.

"They were just doing CPR the whole time," Hudson said. He added: "It was tragic, and I'm still a little shook by it."

The boys' parents were asleep when the children left with the car, witnesses said. They arrived at the crash scene after the fact. Oakland police said the parents are cooperating with the investigation. It remains unclear whether they will face any charges.

A former prosecutor says the law has no clear answer here

Steven Clark, a former prosecutor, told ABC 7 that charging the parents would be an uphill effort. He drew a distinction between leaving a firearm accessible to a child and leaving car keys out, a distinction that may frustrate anyone looking at the wreckage.

"This isn't like leaving a gun around for a kid. This is an automobile that we use every day, and this is the kind of thing that you're used to just leaving your car keys out."

Clark went further, acknowledging the legal dead end that cases like this produce. A seven-year-old committed what would be a crime if an adult did it, but the system has almost no mechanism to address it.

"The law doesn't have an exact remedy for this. It is a crime that the seven-year-old committed, but we're not going to put a seven-year-old in juvenile hall."

That leaves a woman in her 30s fighting for her life and, as of the last available information, no one facing criminal consequences. The investigation is still open, but Clark's assessment suggests the legal system may simply shrug at this one. In a state where unprovoked attacks have left other Californians hospitalized or dead, the gap between harm done and accountability imposed is a familiar pattern.

No names, no charges, and a victim still in critical condition

Oakland police have not released the names of the boys, their parents, or the victim. Surveillance footage captured the sedan's path through the neighborhood, but the source of that footage has not been identified publicly. The Daily Mail reached out to the Oakland Police Department for comment; it is unclear whether the department responded.

Several basic questions remain unanswered. How did a four-year-old and a seven-year-old access the car keys? How did they manage to start and operate the vehicle? Has the woman's condition changed since she was admitted to the hospital? None of these details have been addressed in available reporting.

The incident adds to a grim pattern of violent and reckless harm befalling ordinary people going about their daily lives. Across the country, young people have been responsible for shocking acts of violence that leave communities reeling and families shattered.

Shah-Marquis's demand, that the parents be held responsible, echoes what many Americans feel when they see cases where clear negligence produces devastating results and the legal system offers no remedy. A woman walked her dog on a Thursday morning in Oakland. She used a crosswalk. She did everything right. And now she is in critical condition because two small children had unsupervised access to a two-ton machine.

Clark may be correct that the law has no exact remedy. But when innocent people keep paying the price for failures that no one is held to account for, the absence of a remedy is not an excuse. It is an indictment.

A society that cannot figure out who answers for a four-year-old behind the wheel of a car at 60 miles per hour is a society that has stopped asking the right questions.