From NBC New York
By Katherine Creag and Chris Glorioso
A 10-year-old boy who was thrown through the air and pinned under a parked car after being hit by a taxi last night in Harlem will survive, thanks to the bystanders who acted quickly to help save him.
Minutes before the accident, Jaden Torres and other kids were playing near the intersection of Broadway and La Salle Street at about 7:30 p.m., police and witnesses said.
Suddenly, Jaden darted across the street just as the cab was approaching that section of the roadway, bystanders said.
The taxi couldn’t stop in time, and hit the child. The impact threw the boy into the air and he ended up pinned under a parked car. Fortunately, four bystanders came to his rescue.
“It was horrific, because I have a 10-year-old myself,” said Sabrina Johnson, who was one of those who helped save the child.
Johnson said her friends and two other men lifted the back of the car that had Jaden pinned. A doctor who lives nearby happened to drive up just then, she said.
As the four lifted the car, the doctor checked on the unconscious boy. Several people called 911. The child’s mother came running out.
“I told his mother to go to him,” said Johnson. “I told her to speak to him, to tell him she was there.”
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“She was devastated, devastated,” Johnson added. “I mean, you’re home, you’re in your house, somebody runs in the house and tells you your child has been hit by a car. And then the trauma to his head … I’m surprised she didn’t pass out. If it was my child, I would have.”
As paramedics rushed Jaden to the hospital, police interviewed the driver of the cab. He was cleared of wrongdoing. Investigators say it was an accident.
Police said the boy is in serious condition at Harlem Hospital and is expected to survive.
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