A woman and her child died in a car accident on Long Island Sunday after the father of the child smashed the car into a tree – pinning him inside, witnesses told the Post.
The man was driving the sedan, with the child in a car seat, when the vehicle veered off Old Country Road in Westbury, jumped the curb and slammed into a tree on the grassy median just before noon, witnesses and emergency responders told the Post.
The unidentified victims were trapped in the wreckage while bystanders heroically but unsucessfully tried to free them, witnesses said.
The woman and a small child appeared to have been killed instantly and a man in the car was taken by ambulance to an area hospital, witnesses said.
Police confirmed the two deaths and shut down the thoroughfare from Zeckendorf Boulevard to Eastgate Road near the Source Mall for the investigation. They have not identified the victims and do not know what caused the deadly accident yet.
Christina Kanakis, 35, cashier at Majestic Diner, said she was at the register, looking out the window when she saw the car moving diagonally across lanes.
“No swerving or changing direction, [it] just headed right towards the tree,” she said. “It was surreal. He was going a little faster than the other cars, but he didn’t swerve, didn’t brake. Just bam! Once he hit, the back of the car went up in the air and came down and bounced to the right. I screamed for my brother Philip and called 911.”
The car moved toward a right turning lane for the shopping center when it crashed, witnesses said.
“It sounded like an explosion, a big boom,” said Vajay Shah, 58, who manages the Fortune Smoke Shop and Convenient Store across the street from the crash. “We jumped. I looked out and saw one car piled into the tree and the people were all crowding around it tyring to pull the people out. They couldn’t get the doors open. They were stuck. No one inside the car was moving.”
Nick Bogdos, 72, owner of the Majestic Diner said he saw smoke coming from the radiator.
“I grabbed the fire extinguisher and ran,” he said. “The doors were stuck and the driver tried to say something, but he couldn’t. He was alert, but he was pinned. The little boy raised his head and then boom, he dropped it and never move again. He was strapped into the car seat.”
Philip Bogdos, 43, who manages the family diner, said the father was shouting the Spanish words for son and wife over and over.
“They weren’t answering,” Bodgos said. “He was calling ‘Esposa! Esposa! Hijo! Hijo!’ The 5-year-old was behind him, strapped into a child seat. The little boy lifted his head once and then stopped moving. The wife was completely covered by the airbag and she never moved. They were both pinned in the front seat because the engine moved so far back. The driver tried to get out and I went to help him.
An off-duty EMT warned that moving the victims could worsen their injuries, Bogdos said.
“There was a laundry basket in the back seat, clothes and soap went everywhere,” the witness added.
Ambulances, police and firefighters responded within minutes, he said.
“I saw them bring the child out,” Shah added. “I couldn’t see much because they wraped so many things around the child, but it looked between five and eight years old. I thought it was a boy.”