A normal school day for two 13-year-old girls nearly ended in tragedy when a behemoth SUV plowed into them, trapping them underneath.
One boy and four girls in all were badly injured when the silver Honda Pilot SUV jumped the curb and plowed into the group of children on Maspeth sidewalk, officials tell the Post. The impact knocked one of the girls out of her shoes.
From NY Post:
An out-of-control driver plowed an SUV into a group of middle school students, seriously injuring them near a Queens school this morning – and heroic passersby lifted the massive vehicle off of two pre-teen girls who were trapped underneath.
“I heard people screaming, ‘Oh my God! Oh my God!’ and I saw two little girls underneath the car,” an emotional David Foubister, 40, recounted of helping free the trapped victims.
“Like ten other guys did their best to try to lift the car up as much as we could to get to the girls,” said Foubister, at truck driver who had been walking his dog at around 7:50 a.m. when he happened on the bloody scene at Grand Avenue and 71st Street, across from the Frank Sansivieri Intermediate School No. 73.
The driver, whose name was not released, was given a breathalyzer test at the scene.
A witness said the driver was dropping his child off at school when the accident occurred.
“It was the driver’s mistake,” she said. “He was parking the car to drop his child off at school and he pressed in the gas instead of the brake. He thought he was slowing down but he pushed the gas and jumped the curb.”
