Aug 14, 2008 11:25 pm US/Eastern
Pregnant Traffic Agent Struck & Killed, Baby Saved
Police Arrest 72-Year-Old Man Who Was Driving With A Suspended License; Newborn In Critical Condition
BRONX (CBS) ―
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A pregnant NYC traffic agent was killed on Aug. 14 after being struck by a school bus and a van in the Bronx. Her baby, however, was saved.
CBS
The next 24 hours are critical for a miracle baby boy who survived the horrible accident that killed his mother, New York City traffic agent Donette Sanz on Thursday afternoon. Police said the man who ran her down was driving with a suspended license and is now under arrest for causing the terrible tragedy.
"First I heard this humungous, terrible crash," witness Cheryl Brown said. "Then I came out, saw 20-30 people run to the school bus. And they were like, 'Oh my God! There's somebody over here' and went to lift."
Several good Samaritans rushed to help the pregnant NYC traffic enforcement officer. The 33-year-old was crossing East 188th Street at Webster Avenue in the Bronx on her way to get lunch when a van slammed into her, throwing her body into the path of an oncoming bus, which struck her as well.
"The lady, she's pinned underneath the bus," Madalina Diaz said. "About 20 of us just get underneath the bus and start lifting up the bus. They pull her out from underneath there. Then they see that she's pregnant."
Sanz was seven months pregnant with her first child, a baby boy. She was rushed to St. Barnabus Hospital, where doctors performed an emergency C-section.
Miraculously, the doctors were able to save the child, but Sanz did not survive. Her stunned neighbors said she was so excited to be a mother.
"I can't believe it. She was so happy," Reese Hill said. "I was just talking to her last month. I seen her stomach and I said, 'Oh you having a baby!'"
Police arrested the driver of the van, 72-year-old Walter Walker.
He states that the brakes failed," NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly said.
Kelly, who visited Sanz's family at the hospital on Thursday night, said Walker was not drunk, but was driving with a suspended license, and has had his license suspended 20 times before. Kelly said Walker should never have been behind the wheel.
"That's the world as we find it these days," Kelly said. "But this is a terrible, terrible tragedy.
Sanz had only been a traffic officer for a year and a half. Her husband is now left to care for their baby boy, who weighed just 3 pounds and 6 ounces. He's in the neonatal intensive care unit in critical condition.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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