“It’s a miracle that she’s alive,” a witness said of the incident
NEED TO KNOW
- A teenager walked away after getting run over by a Mack truck while crossing the street on her way home from school
- In videos from the incident, the girl appeared to try to outrun the truck before getting pushed to the ground and trapped under it
- “I didn’t see blood or any injuries and she told me she was okay,” a witness recalled
A teenager was able to walk away after being run over and trapped under a Mack truck in Philadelphia.
The girl with a backpack on could be seen crossing the street while looking at her phone before the stopped truck began moving beside her, in videos obtained by ABC station WPVI and CBS station KYW.
When she noticed that the driver had hit the gas, the girl appeared to try to outrun the truck before getting pushed to the ground and trapped under it on the corner of Summerland Avenue and Marcella Street.
“She was under it; she was actually under it,” a witness told WPVI.
In the moments after the girl was run over by the truck, bystanders could be seen frantically waving their hands and running to help her.
“I was yelling, ‘Stop, stop, stop,’ ” Bladimir Gomera, an employee at a nearby jewelry store, recalled to KYW. “I talked to her — she told me that she was fine.”
After checking on the teenager, Gomera alleged that the truck driver appeared to be completely unaware that the girl was stuck under the vehicle.
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
“I told him, ‘Don’t move the truck. You have a girl under the truck,’ ” he told WPVI. “I asked her how she was. She said she was fine; only her hair was right under the truck. I didn’t see blood or any injuries and she told me she was okay.”
“She’s not supposed to be crossing that way,” he added. “There is not a crosswalk there; it’s at the corner.”
Ivonne Roson, the owner of Ivonne Jewelry, recalled the incident, saying that the teenager was coming from school and failed to see the truck as she crossed the street.
“She crossed the street, and he started the truck,” she told WPVI, later telling KYW that the girl “was very quiet” after the terrifying incident occurred.
The Philadelphia Police Department told PEOPLE that, while officers went out to the location after the accident, all parties involved were gone.
“The odds were more to the fatality side,” Gomera emphasized to KYW. “It’s a miracle that she’s alive.”
Read the full article here
