Baby in Stroller Killed by Car With ‘Possibly Intoxicated’ Driver
The infant was struck in the Bronx. It was the second time this month that a child was hit and killed by a car in New York City.
A 1-year-old child was killed on Tuesday when a driver, “possibly intoxicated,” lost control of his car in the Bronx, jumped a curb and hit the child, who was being pushed in a stroller by its mother, the police said.
The driver, who was not identified, was taken into custody after the accident, which occurred around 4 p.m., the police said. Charges were pending.
The driver was turning onto East 215th Street from White Plains Road in the Olinville neighborhood when he lost control of the vehicle and struck the child, the police said. The child and its mother were taken to Montefiore Medical Center, where the child was pronounced dead, the police said. The mother appeared to be unhurt, the police said.
The collision occurred almost on the doorstep of Mama G. African Kitchen, a restaurant near a heavily traveled stretch of White Plains Road in a strip of storefronts beneath the elevated tracks that carry the Nos. 2 and 5 trains.
After nightfall on Tuesday, a damaged, empty stroller sat upright on the curb between the restaurant’s side wall and a white BMW S.U.V. that had its front wheels at an angle up on the sidewalk. Fragments of a vehicle grille littered the pavement.
Atta Bofa, 43, said he had been sitting outside a grocery store a few doors from the intersection when he heard a loud noise, a “boom” he recreated in an interview by pounding his fist into his palm. Then, he said, he saw a woman crying for help.
Mr. Bofa said he ran around the corner and saw the car and the stroller pressed to the wall.
“But I didn’t see the baby,” he said. “I said, ‘Where’s the baby?’ And they said, ‘The baby’s under the car.’”
Mr. Bofa said he and another bystander pushed the vehicle back from the wall and lifted the child, who was not moving, into the mother’s arms. He said the driver, a young man who appeared to be in his early 20s, stood beside the vehicle and waited for the police to arrive.
Neighbors and people who work in the area said in interviews that traffic accidents are common on this stretch of White Plains Road.
“I think they need to put a stoplight over there,” said Devine Nicols, a stylist who works at a salon next to the restaurant.
“I’m not a mom,” she said, “but it’s overwhelming.”
It was the second time this month that a child was killed by a driver who lost control of a car in New York City. On Sept. 10, Enzo Farachio, 10, died after being struck at an intersection in the Midwood neighborhood of Brooklyn by an S.U.V. after the driver experienced a “medical episode,” the police said.
The 10-year-old boy had been waiting for a bus, most likely trying to get home. At around 2:43 p.m. that day, the police said, the driver veered off the road and mounted the sidewalk where Enzo was standing.
The driver, who was riding with his 9-year-old daughter, went on to strike a scaffolding on Ocean Avenue, according to the police.
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