A Brooklyn father and his two children miraculously survived after being struck by a vehicle while walking on a Crown Heights sidewalk on Wednesday, April 6. The family barely escaped with their lives, with the lucky dad saying he and his two kids relied on their animal instinct to escape serious injury.
Marco Diaz told the New York Post that he and his two sons, August and Alex, were heading to the No. 2 subway in Crown Heights just before 8 a.m. when the vehicle suddenly plowed into them. Diaz said he saw this car careening towards them out of his peripheral vision.
Diaz said he just had enough time to leap out of the way of the vehicle, which had been traveling on Nostrand Avenue when the driver lost control of it. According to the 48-year-old Diaz, the car suddenly veered left at St. John Place.
No screeching brakes heard from vehicle
Diaz said that there was no squeal and no screeching brakes coming from the vehicle. According to Diaz, the only true telltale sound that the car produced was when its tires hit the curb, and the driver popped up over the curb. That was when Diaz looked to his right and realized that this vehicle was literally coming at them.
As soon as Diaz saw this image of this car heading towards them, he quickly scooped up his son Alex, whose face was at grill height, to get him out of the way of the vehicle. His other son, August, also dove out of the way, according to World Newz Info.
Diaz said he picked Alex up, resulting in him taking the brunt of the car hit. The impact caused Alex to come out of his father's hands with the young child ending up on the car's hood. The car bumped Diaz forward into the closed gate of the Two Saints bar on the corner.
Diaz said that he was fortunate that the driver hit the side of the gate. Because of that, there was just enough space between his now indented gate and the front of the car so that he did not get hit again. Diaz said that his little guy rolled off the hood onto the ground with the car bouncing backward about four feet.
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Driver released after police found his blood-alcohol level to be zero
Diaz said he was able to crawl out at that point and get away from the vehicle. Diaz gave credit to the strangers in the area who helped the family without hesitation, saying, "Like a million people swarmed around us immediately and started helping us get situated and making sure no one got up."
A police spokeswoman said that the driver was taken into custody but later released after his blood alcohol turned out to be zero. The video showed the driver switching lanes to avoid an accident, resulting in him losing control of the vehicle.
According to a study published by Transportation Alternatives, 273 people died in car crashes in New York City last year, the highest number since 2013.
