NYPD: “No Criminality” as Cab Driver Runs Over Kids on Bronx Sidewalk

Several people, including a number of children, were seriously injured when a livery cab driver drove onto a sidewalk in the Bronx this morning.

At around 7:45 the driver, a man whose name was not released, “lost control” of a Toyota Camry at 229 E. Kingsbridge Road, according to NYPD. A police spokesperson said the driver hit one woman and four children on the sidewalk. Four victims were hospitalized in stable condition and one in serious condition, NYPD said.

FDNY said there were six victims: two in critical condition, three in stable condition, and one with a minor injury. The two critically injured victims were children, according to a fire department spokesperson.

NYPD told Streetsblog the Collision Investigation Squad, which works only the most serious traffic crashes, was dispatched to the scene.

WNBC reported that the driver was taken into custody this morning, but NYPD could not confirm. Unnamed police sources told the Post “no criminality was suspected.”

From the Post:

A passer-by comforted a 5-year-old boy as emergency workers arrived at Valentine Avenue and East Kingsbridge Road in Fordham Manor after the 7:45 a.m. accident

“I held his hand and he said, ‘I want to see my sister, I want to see my sister!’ He was so scared. I said, ‘Look at me! Look at my eyes! You’re going to be OK,’” said Nilda Guerrero, 57.

“He was crying and he wanted to hold his mother’s hand. I pretended I was his mother. And I held his hand. And I said, ‘Miguel, you’re going to be fine,’” she added.

“I heard a noise — a loud boom and a crash. There were people screaming. I ran over and there was a mother and daughter under the car,” said Migdalia Morales, 42, a parks worker.

“There was a little girl that had her legs stuck under the car next to the building,” she said

The Post reported that the 5-year-old boy and his sister, age 8, suffered broken legs and chest trauma. The girl had two broken legs and was bleeding internally, the Post said.

“Neighbors say the school bus stop near the accident scene should have been moved years ago because it’s a high-traffic area with speeders,” WNBC reported.

The crash happened near the intersection of E. Kingsbridge Road and Valentine Avenue, an expanse of asphalt one block east of the Grand Concourse, in the 52nd Precinct. More than 300 people, including 97 pedestrians and 21 cyclists, have been injured in traffic crashes in the 52nd Precinct this year as of August, according to DOT’s Vision Zero View. There have been 189 injuries to motor vehicle occupants, indicating collisions at high speeds. Precinct officers ticket around two speeding drivers a day on average.

Today’s incident marks the fourth time in recent memory that a curb-jumping driver has injured or killed children in the Bronx. Last March a speeding green cab driver fatally struck 5-year-old Tierre Clark on a Grand Concourse sidewalk, and in October 2014 a motorist killed 8-year-old Rylee Ramos and hit nine other people on the sidewalk outside a school in Kingsbridge. Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson filed no charges against either of those drivers. In June Johnson charged the driver accused of striking and killing 7-year-old Ethan Villavicencio inside a Pelham Bay restaurant with leaving the scene.

We have a message in with the Taxi and Limousine Commission for information on the driver.

Video via New York Post