A southern Ontario child was rushed to hospital on Wednesday after her nine-year-old brother accidentally drove over her with the family van.

Ontario Provincial Police say the incident happened shortly after 8 a.m. Wednesday. The boy was playing in the family's GMC Savana as it was parked outside his home in Lakeshore, Ont., just east of Windsor in Essex County.

OPP Const. Janet Hayes said the boy somehow shifted the car from park into reverse, sending the car backwards and running over his six-year-old sister.

Investigators say the children were getting ready to go to school; their mother was nearby but not in the vehicle at the time of the accident.

The girl was rushed to a local hospital and later transferred to London Health Sciences University Campus Hospital with life-threatening injuries. A family member says the girl remains in critical condition.

With a report from CTV Toronto's John Musselman