MIAMI (WSVN) – Rescue crews airlifted an 11-year-old boy to the hospital after he was hit by a car in a Miami Gardens neighborhood, prompting officers to arrest the driver, police said.
Miami Gardens Police and Miami-Dade Fire Rescue units responded to the scene of the wreck near the intersection of Northwest 188th Street and 12th Avenue, at around 8 a.m. on Tuesday.
Investigators said the driver of a black Ford Fusion was traveling southbound at a high rate of speed when he drove on the swale to avoid slow traffic.
Seconds later, police said, he struck a tree and then the victim, who was walking on the sidewalk.
A surveillance camera captured audio of the moment of impact.
The Fusion crashed into a chain-link fence outside of Rose Emile’s home, located just south of a school zone.
“I was inside my house, I hear some noise. When I hear big noise like this, I say, ‘Whats going on?’” said Emile.
“I heard like a big bang, like, I don’t know, like, explosion, I hear ‘boom,’” said witness Orlando Lawrence.
7 Drone Force hovered above the scene, as the Fusion was seen against the fence with its driver’s side air bag deployed.
Emile said the car came to rest in her front yard, adding she came outside and spoke with the driver.
“I said, ‘What’s going on?’ It’s just a man who was doing the accident. He said, ‘I’m the one who do this, do the accident,’” she said.
Police identified the driver as 23-year-old Darius Forbes.
7News cameras captured the suspect, who was in handcuffs and wearing pajamas. He was placed in the back of a police car.
According to neighbors, the child who was hit is in elementary school.
“My daughter started getting emotional, can’t stop crying, stuff like that. She said she knows the kid,” said Lawrence.
Lawrence was one of those who called 911.
“At first he wasn’t responsive when I got out, just throwing water on his head and trying to, you know, big gash on his head,” he said.
A rescue helicopter landed near the campus of Miami Norland Senior High School and airlifted the young pedestrian to Jackson Memorial Hospital, where he is being treated for a head injury.
The victim’s mother, Shakera Rolle, spoke with 7News from the hospital about her experience after the incident.
“I was definitely traumatized when I got the phone call,” she said.
Rolle said her son, Johnny Baptiste Jr., was walking to school with his cousin like they do every morning. But this walk turned into a nightmare.
“He’s doing OK, he’s pretty banged up and bruised up. He has a small fracture on the right side of his forehead,” said Rolle.
As of late Tuesday night, Baptiste is listed in serious but stable condition.
Photos provided to 7News show the victim, who remains in the hospital with a fractured skull and pelvis.
While her son recovers from his head injury, Rolle now questions if that walk to school is even safe at all.
“I thought it was safe because there’s a crossing guard there, and it’s a school zone,” she said.
Forbes was charged with reckless driving.
Rolle has a message to the driver.
“I just [want to] tell him that I’m really hurt, about the whole situation. You know, my son was just on the way to school. I just wish he paid more attention to the road, because there is a school zone,” she said.
Neighbors said they want to see more police monitoring the speeding, especially during school hours.
“Slow down, because kids, they are playing and, you know, sometimes, I’m gonna be walking across the street, you know, but it’s always speeding, you know,” said Lawrence.
The Fusion was later towed away from the scene.
Rolle said that her son could be released from the hospital on Wednesday. Even though they live very close to his school, she said she probably won’t let him walk to school anymore.
“I’m not even comfortable with him walking to school, even if it’s two blocks away,” she said.
An investigation into this crash continues.
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