Jun 22, 2008 11:20 am US/Eastern
Toddler Critical After Brooklyn Hit-And-Run
Fourth Car Crashes Into Pedestrians In 2 Days, 22 Victims Recovering
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
A car plowed into pedestrians on a sidewalk for the fourth time in two days, hurting four people and raising the toll to nearly two dozen victims from the strange spate of wrecks.
Saturday's accident in Brooklyn's Flatbush neighborhood—which injured two toddlers—came a day after cars veered onto sidewalks at three separate locations in Manhattan, hitting 18 people. Three were hospitalized in serious condition; 11 others were treated for less serious injuries.
Witnesses to Saturday's accident said the car crashed into two children at play on the sidewalk, where they lay bleeding after being hit.
A 2-year-old boy was hospitalized in critical condition, and a girl, also 2, in stable condition, police said. Two young women, 16 and 19, were in stable condition, according to police.
Authorities did not say whether the women and children were related.
Police said the 16-year-old driver ran from the scene on East 19th Street, but officers caught up with him.
"He ran for his life, and the hell with everybody else's life—he just cared about his own," witness Serena Hawkes said.
The teen, Akeem Grant, was arrested on charges that include reckless endangerment, reckless driving and leaving the scene of an accident. No telephone number could be found for him, and police weren't certain whether he had a lawyer.
Officers also led away another man, apparently a relative of some of the victims, after he scuffled with onlookers at the scene. Police were unsure whether he would be charged.
More than a dozen pedestrians were injured Friday after being hit by cars in three separate incidents.
Unlicensed driver Estabannie Sanchez was led away in handcuffs Friday after being behind the wheel of an SUV which jumped the curb on Seventh Avenue in Manhattan.
"We basically heard a noise behind us and turned around and the jeep was already on the pavement, on the sidewalk, all wheels," said witness Ian Cairns.
The out-of-control explorer plowed into 10 pedestrians on the sidewalk in front of the music store the driver attempted to get to.
"There was a lady under the front, a guy on the side, two underneath the back wheel," another witness said.
Also pinned under the vehicle was a little boy, helped by people like Eliete Alvarez, who hurt his neck when the vehicle sent him into a truck.
"We lifted the car, got the boy out. The boy was with his mother. The boy was fine," Alvarez said.
Tourist Christine Cairns managed to escape without injury, but she was grazed by the Explorer. "It caught my leg. It wedged my leg against the glass door, which was open, and I managed to edge it on or I would have been down, down under the jeep," she said.
A short time earlier, in Harlem another driver, in a livery cab, lost control and hit a 55-year-old woman then crashed into a Washington Mutual bank.
The woman was taken in critical condition to the hospital, and the driver was given a ticket for driving while on a cell phone.
And on the East Side a 60-year-old man stepped on the gas instead of the brake while exiting a parking spot and struck seven people, two of whom were in serious condition at the hospital Saturday.
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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