A police tow truck driver ran over and injured a 2-year-old child along South Street on Thursday afternoon, injuring her leg, police confirmed.
According to the NYPD, the 64-year-old driver of the 2014 Ford tow truck — whose name was not released — was making a right turn from Peck Slip onto South Street when he hit the tot. The child, whose name was not released, was taken to Bellevue Hospital with a leg injury while the operator of the truck remained on the scene and was not charged.
The NYPD says the investigation is ongoing.
A witness, who sent Streetsblog photos of the aftermath of the crash, said she was horrified by the age of the victim.
"I have two nephews," said the witness, Alicia Ceballo, "so I can only imagine what I'd feel."
Even minor crashes change the lives of child victims forever, experts say. There may be weeks of nightmares or even deeper post traumatic stress disorder.
"Physicians should be aware that PTSD can occur at anv age and can result from a broad spectrum of traumatic experiences," the Journal of Family Practice wrote more than a decade ago. "What most physicians would regard as 'relatively minor' trauma, such as the aforementioned automobile accident, can produce emotional sequelae that may be just as disabling as those produced by experiencing wartime atrocities or being buried alive in a school bus."
A more recent study in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry analyzed 50 children who had been struck by drivers. Seven children — or 14 percent — "met criteria for PTSD diagnosis," the journal reported. And five more children — or 10 percent — met the medical criteria for "specific phobia."
"Findings suggest ... the importance of social support following a motor vehicle accident [sic] injury," the journal concluded.
The stretch of South Street south of the Brooklyn Bridge is particularly dangerous because drivers frequently speed in the area and it is often dark because of the elevated FDR Drive. According to city statistics, there were 27 reported crashes last year on just the 0.75 miles between Peck Slip and Broad Street, injuring one cyclist, two pedestrians and three motorists.
