Mom and 4 children, including baby in stroller, run over at school bus stop by driver trying to escape police
This article contains distressing content. Discretion is advised.
BROOKLYN, NEW YORK: A female hit-and-run driver struck a mother and her four children, including a baby in a stroller, in Brooklyn on Wednesday, November 30, while she was trying to escape from police. The incident took place in Midwood at New York Avenue and Avenue J just before 5 pm.
Police said that after they attempted to stop a white Mercedes-Benz along Flatbush Avenue, the driver fled on Avenue J and struck the family after running stop signs. According to WABC, the mother and two of her children were waiting for the school bus for her other two children to arrive when the accident occurred.
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"When the Mercedes hit the woman, the woman flies and hit the ground and the kid was shivering," an unnamed male witness told WABC. "[The mother] was under the bus, actually," a female witness added. "I was praying for her. It is just so terrible. It is definitely terrible."
Local resident Joanne Johnson, 32, watched in horror as the white Mercedes Benz approached at top speed. "I heard the car even before it hit them," Johnson described the scene before the driver slammed into the children while they crossed the street to get to their mother. "[The driver] blew past the stop sign and hit them," Johnson told the Daily News. "It was disgusting. So wrong."
The force of the crash sent the woman tumbling under the school bus. "The mom was under the bus crying," a witness said. "There was another baby in a stroller." The injured woman screamed from under the bus, "Help me! My kids! My kids!"
The mother, 41, and her four children - three daughters, aged 8, 5, and 1, and a son, aged 3 - were all rushed right away to a nearby hospital where their conditions were all listed as stable. The family is expected to survive. The car involved in the collision was discovered by police who were investigating the incident nearby at E 24th St and Glenwood Road. However, police sources informed that the female driver had abandoned the vehicle there and fled.
Police have not yet made any arrests, and the suspect is still at large. The New York Police Department encourages anyone with knowledge about the collision to reach out to them.