A small girl was struck by a car on Friday evening on Monterey Pine Avenue in Eastgate and rushed by an air ambulance to U.C. Davis Medical Center in Sacramento for precautions only.

The accident occurred at 5:16 p.m. at Monterey Pine and Beach Way when a 21-year-old man walked his three-year-old sister to a neighbor's house. He was holding her hand but as they got to the sidewalk to greet the neighbor, the neighbor's small dachshund began barking and running toward her, scaring her so badly that she pulled away and ran into the street in the path of a northbound Toyota Tacoma. The female driver hit her brakes and veered in an attempt to miss the girl but the child was struck by the bumper and knocked into the street.

The vehicle was traveling at about 10 mph, said Ceres Police Department spokesman Lt. Chris Perry. The child suffered minor abrasions and scratches.Paramedics were unable to determine if her head was struck but she was flown to the hospital to be checked out as "an overabundance of caution," said Lt. Perry.