SUV flies off highway in New York, 6 injured
Click here for updates on this story
NORTH BELLMORE, NY (WCBS) — It was like a scene from a movie.
An SUV went flying off the Southern State Parkway on Sunday morning, over a fence, and then hit a pickup truck before slamming into a parked car.
Samantha Rivera told CBS2’s Cory James exclusively she will never forget the phone call she received or the video.
“She just said, ‘Ma Ma, we was in an accident. The whole car flipped. The baby was bleeding.’ I saw the video and I started screaming … like, ‘Oh my God,’” Rivera said.
Inside that vehicle was Rivera’s son, daughter-in-law, brother-in-law, and 2-month-old grandson, Mason.
New York State Police said the accident happened just before 11 a.m. on Old Britton Road in North Bellmore.
“The noise, I never heard something like that,” one man told James.
Jessica Restrepo came running out of a house with her family members to help.
“The mom was coming out, crawling out from the windshield. My fiance opened the door then he (helped) the male come out. He dragged him out. He went inside. There was another person that was on top of a baby,” Restrepo said.
Video captured those frantic moments, as Jonathan Cervantes pulled the baby out of the smoking vehicle and handed the child to his mother, who was on the ground.
“I gave him to the mother and she calmed down and then the father got up and was all over the place. He was very disoriented,” Cervantes said.
While it is not known what caused the crash, Rivera said her daughter-in-law, who was driving, told her they were hit by another car.
“She said it was coming near her and it went right in the back of her truck and her car swerved into somebody’s yard,” Rivera said.
It was an accident that had this grandmother fearing the worst, especially for her son.
“I’m still praying because I don’t know how he’s doing. He might be crippled for the rest of his life,” Rivera said.
Rivera said her son and brother-in-law were taken to Nassau University Medical Center with serious injuries.
“My brother-in-law has a broken neck, a fractured lung. My daughter-in-law, she blew her knee out. My son, he can’t move at all from head to toe,” Rivera said, adding the baby suffered just cuts and bruises and is expected to be fine.
Police said the people inside a black truck that was hit first by the SUV suffered minor injuries.
Neighbors said those men were volunteer firefighters and also heroes.
“They jumped in … seconds,” Cervantes said.
It was an unforgettable rescue, involving multiple people.
State police are still investigating the cause of the crash. Investigators said if anyone has any information, they should call police.
Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.
