Two Bridge and Tunnel cops saved a 9-year-old’s life yesterday after the child’s neck became entangled in a seatbelt mid-span on the Verrazano Narrows Bridge.
Little Arthur Tyminsky was riding in the back seat of his mother’s SUV around 7:10 p.m. yesterday when he wrapped the seatbelt around his neck several times and the safety device suddenly locked into place — leaving little room for the child to breathe.
“It was dark and I couldn’t see,” said Staten Island mom Khrystyna Pendorak, 30. “I put the light on and saw the belt wrapped around his neck.”
She slammed on the brakes.
“I put my fingers between the belt and his neck and called 911. I said, ‘Don’t move. Don’t talk. Only breathe.’ Every minute felt like a year,” she said. “If I had waited one more minute, I don’t know what would have happened.”
Officer Edward Grimm, 35, who has two boys ages 10 and 2, responded to the frantic 911 call with his partner Lee Simons, 32. They found the terrified mom screaming, with her fingers clawing at the contraption.
“It was the worst thing I could have seen,” Grimm said. “The seatbelt was wrapped around the child’s neck, I would say at least eight times. The kid wasn’t talking. He wasn’t moving. He was turning colors. He was turning blue.”
Simons grabbed a folding pocket knife and sliced through the the deadly trap to free the boy.
“The minute he was released, he took a big gasp of air,” Simons added.
Arthur suffered minor cuts and bruises on his neck but was brave and in remarkably good spirits, given the gravity of the situation.
“If we didn’t get there in time, this child wouldn’t be alive,” Grimm said.
kconley@nypost.com