Witnesses say it’s a miracle that a teenager is still alive after she was run over by a dump truck in the middle of the street. Video shows the girl being distracted by her phone before stepping across the road and approaching a truck that had stopped momentarily. That’s when the driver of the vehicle accelerated, apparently without noticing the girl cross in front of it.
Witness says the teenage girl only sustained minor injuries
On September 11, an unidentified teenage girl was struck and trapped beneath a Mack truck in Philadelphia, according to reports by ABC, CBS, and PHL17 Philadelphia.
Footage taken from a surveillance camera at Ivonne Jewelry store, located at the intersection of Marcella Street and Summerland Avenue, shows how the harrowing incident occurred. It shows the girl, who had a backpack and was coming from school, looking down at her phone as she walks across the street in a section without a traffic light or crosswalk. She passes in front of a stopped truck, believing it to be safe.
That’s when the driver of the heavy-duty, eight-wheel commercial vehicle stepped on the gas, apparently not seeing the girl, who was shorter than the hood of the truck. The teenager, who witnesses estimate to be somewhere between 14 and 16 years old, is seen trying to dash away and taking about four steps forward before she gets knocked over and trips.
Some of the bystanders try to alert the driver by waving their arms at the driver, but it’s too late. The truck runs the girl over before coming to a halt. Two witnesses are seen looking away at the moment of the accident, fearing the worst.
Bladimir Gomera, one of the bystanders and an employee of the jewelry store, rushed to stop the truck and save the teenager.
“I was yelling, ‘Stop, stop, stop!'” Gomera recalled, as he signaled the driver to stop.
“I told him, ‘Don’t move the truck. You have a girl under the truck,'” he continued, noting that the driver was likely unaware that he had struck the teenager in the first place.
When Gomera checked on the girl, she was miraculously still alive. However, she was still stuck beneath the vehicle.
“I talked to her — she told me that she was fine,” he said. “Only her hair was right under the truck. I didn’t see blood or any injuries, she told me she was OK.”
Bystanders then told the driver to move forward slightly so that the girl would be dislodged. The jewelry store owner, Ivonne Roson, said the teenager managed to free herself and rolled out beneath the vehicle. She said the girl was surprisingly calm after the incident.
“She was very quiet,” Roson said. “We ask her, ‘Are you OK?’ She said, ‘Yes.'”
Gomera was shocked that the teen only sustained a few scratches from the incident. “The odds were more to the fatality side,” he said. “It’s a miracle that she’s alive.”
He said the teenager wasn’t supposed to be crossing the road because “there is not a crosswalk there,” saying that there was one near the corner. Bystanders checked on the girl several times to ensure she did not have any major injuries and walked her home. They say that the teenager did not let go of her phone throughout the accident.
The Philadelphia Police Department said that officers responded to the incident on Friday, but they didn’t find anyone involved in the incident there by the time they arrived on the scene. They say that the accident remains under investigation.
At the time of writing, the identity of the girl as well as her condition remains unknown.
