OMAHA, Neb. -- A 4-year-old girl fell from a moving vehicle Wednesday afternoon, according to Omaha Police.

Kristina Hernandez was transported to Creighton University Medical Center in serious condition.

She was unrestrained in the front of a truck with two other children, police said.

The driver, Elizabeth Maldonado, was eastbound on L Street when she was made a left turn in the intersection at 84th Street.

During the turn, the passenger door swung open and the girl fell out.

Police ticketed Maldonado on three counts of child neglect.

This is not the first time she has run into trouble.

According to police, Maldonado was ticketed June 27 for failure to use proper child restraint.

This is the second serious incident in one week caused by unrestrained children.

Last week, a toddler died after getting out of his restrain and falling from a moving SUV.

"Just another reminder that this is really important that you restrain your children in child safety restraints," said Omaha Police Department Lt. Darci Tierney. "It's against the law not to, and it just makes sense."

Officer Steve Podany said unrestrained children are the exception, not the rule. But he hates it when he sees the exception.

"There'll be 10 kids in the backseat, none of them are seatbelted in and we have bigger kids holding smaller kids. We come across that several times," he said. "They don't think of the consequences of their actions until it's too late."

Podany was patrolling Millard Wednesday night when he saw a man who hadn't properly restrained the child in his car. He told Podany he was having a bad day.

Podany said he wished that would be the last ticket he had to write for that offense, but he knows better.

"We'll probably go out and see it tonight or tomorrow," he said.

If you'd like a child seat or a car seat safety check, log onto safekidsnebraska.org or you can call (402) 339-4334 for Sarpy County Safe Kids or (402) 955-6815 for Safe Kids Omaha.