A witness said the driver of a car crashed into two other vehicles, overturning on its side in the Fordham Heights section of The Bronx on Friday night, Oct. 11, reportedly after she was startled when a child appeared to “pop up” unexpectedly.

 

A spokesperson from the FDNY said the department received a call at 8.08 p.m. on Friday night for a report of a motor vehicle accident at East 179th Street and Webster Avenue. The spokesperson said EMS transported two patients to St. Barnabas Hospital following the collision and their descriptions and conditions were unknown.

Norwood News spoke to some local residents after the incident on Friday night and asked them if they had seen what happened. One young man who was across the street [Webster] from where the collision occurred and who declined to be identified said a car was turning onto East 179th Street from Webster Avenue when the accident occurred. “It hit the baby,” he said.

 

Asked which baby, the young man pointed towards East 179th Street and said a young girl he estimated was about 3 years of age who he said had been running back and forth on that street.

 

Asked how badly the child was hurt, the young man said, “The baby was knocked out.” In reference to images posted to the Citizens’ App of a car on its side at the location, we asked if the car driver had swerved to try to avoid hitting the child, and the young man said, “Yeah.”

Asked if the driver was hurt, the young man said, “The driver was brought to the hospital too [along with the little girl].” The young man’s mother added that the child had been playing on the street before the accident had happened.

 

On the other side of Webster Avenue, on the corner with East 179th Street in front of the entrance to the Alden Hotel, a number of other young families and young kids were seen seemingly socialising and hanging out late on Friday night.

 

Norwood News asked most of the adults present if they had seen what happened in terms of the accident. Speaking in Spanish, most said they have not or had arrived after the fact.

We also asked the employees working in the reception area inside the hotel, along with other residents further up the street [Webster] if they had witnessed the accident, and all said they had not.

 

We later followed up with the NYPD press office on Friday night for more details of the accident and at that stage, the press office said they had not yet received the incident report.

 

We called again on Saturday morning and the press office said the report was not yet finalized but Officer Pablo confirmed that a motor vehicle collision took place involving an occupied 2013 Nissan [Vehicle 1], a 2010 Honda SUV [Vehicle 2], and a 2015 Hyundai [Vehicle 3] at the location at 8.08 p.m. involving one driver.

 

He said the 28-year-old female driver told police that as she was turning eastbound onto East 179th Street from Webster Avenue, a pedestrian child appeared to “pop up” unexpectedly.

“Instead of pressing on the brakes, [she] pressed on the gas, causing [her] to collide into Vehicle [2] and Vehicle [3],” the spokesperson said. “Both vehicles are parked, unattended on East 179th.”

 

Police said the child in question was uninjured and may have been brought to hospital, along with the driver, out of an abundance of caution. He said the driver was reported to have complained of neck pain and confirmed [she] was transported to St. Barnabas Hospital.

 

When we mentioned that FDNY had reported two transfers to St. Barnabas, Pablo added, “It states no injury to the child, which is great.” The spokesperson reiterated, however, that the injuries section of the incident report was still blank, had been rejected, and is still to be finalized. “What I just read you might not be totally accurate, but this report is not finalized,” he said. “A lot of times we’ll even transport the child to the hospital just to get them checked out if they were traumatized.”

The NYPD later confirmed the information provided above was correct, apart from the gender of the driver, who was female, and the numeric labeling of the cars, both of which have since been corrected.

 

Separately, we also asked NYC Department of Social Services (DSS) if perhaps the Alden Hotel is being used to house immigrant families as there appeared to have been quite a few families congregating outside it on the corner on Friday night. We will share any updates we receive.