Police and witnesses say that an SUV hit a mother, her three children, and them as they were leaving the doctor’s office in New Jersey. One of the children was killed and the other family members were hurt.
The family had just left the pediatrician’s office around 4 p.m. Thursday and was crossing Ramapo Valley Road in Oakland, according to the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office. It was clear for the four of them to cross, but an Acura SUV came around the corner from East Oak Street and hit them.
A person who was only a few feet away at the time said the car was going “full speed” when it hit the family. That person, who did not want to be named, said the mother was walking with two young boys while holding a 9-month-old baby.
A family member said that two boys are four and five years old.
Kathleen Pope said, “I had just pulled into my office parking lot and I heard her screaming, ‘My babies, my babies.'” She said that many people, including doctors from the office, rushed to help the family.
“Those people who work at the pediatrics clinic. All of those doctors rushed over there. They put on gloves and got to work. Pope said, “They left the whole office empty.”
The children were helped by strangers and first responders, but one of them died from their injuries, according to the county prosecutor’s office. A family member said the boy, who was 4, died.
The mother, the two other children, and themselves all got hurt, some of them seriously.
“We all got up and walked over from the office, but one man got there before me and came back crying.” Pope said, “He told us not to go over there because it was bad.”
The county prosecutor’s office said Thursday night that the names of the people involved would not be made public.
The SUV driver stayed at the scene of the accident. She hadn’t been charged with anything yet about the crash.
