A crazed man wearing only sneakers and underwear hijacked a truck in Brooklyn yesterday and clipped two 12-year-olds on a school field trip, police said.
“It was a fun day until this happened. I turned around and the truck hit me,” said student Amelia Hellebusch as she left Coney Island Hospital last night.
She was treated for an ankle injury.
A teacher tried to wave the truck to a stop before it hit the girls, and was nearly mowed down herself, Amelia said.
The other injured girl also was released after treatment.
“It’s just every parent’s nightmare,” said Amelia’s mom, Fran Hellebusch, who recalled that she had gotten “hysterical” when the school called about the bizarre accident.
She said she was relieved when she found her daughter “up and talking” at the hospital.
“Thank God it ended well,” she said.
The unidentified truck driver was under psychiatric observation at Kings County Hospital, cops said.
A second man — apparently an employee of the truck’s owner or operator — was in the back of the box truck when it was stolen at 2:45 p.m. at Avenue I and East 32nd Street in Midwood.
One witness said the man had been “eating leaves” before he jumped behind the wheel of a truck being loaded with furniture.
After striking the kids at East 37th Street in Marine Park, the driver kept going, until he hit vehicles at Nostrand Avenue and was arrested.