A 3-year-old Brooklyn girl is clinging to life after she broke away from her mother, ran into traffic and was struck by a passing SUV driver early Thursday, police said.
The girl stepped away from the mom on the sidewalk and darted between two parked cars onto 50th St. near Fifth Ave. in Sunset Park just after 12 a.m., horrified witnesses told cops.
The child was hit by a passing 2018 Nissan Sentra operated by a 43-year-old man and carrying two girls, one 11, one 9, cops said.
The near-fatal strike is hauntingly similar to a scene that played out a month earlier when a 4-year-old boy broke away from his mother and was fatally struck by a passing SUV outside a Brooklyn hospital.
In Thursday’s crash, the tot’s family rushed her to Bellevue Hospital, where she is in critical condition.
No one in the Nissan was hurt. The driver remained on the scene and faced no immediate charges.
The NYPD’s Collision Investigation Squad is investigating the crash.
On March 5, 4-year-old Zachariah Padilla was fatally hit by a Ford SUV driver outside of Brookdale University Hospital on Rockaway Parkway and Linden Blvd.
Gardiner Anderson / New York Daily News; Courtesy of family
The NYPD Highway Patrol investigates after 4-year-old Zachariah Padilla (inset) was fatally struck by a hit-and-run driver outside Brookdale University Hospital in Brooklyn on March 5. (Gardiner Anderson / New York Daily News; Courtesy of family)
The child had just broken away from his mother, Harmonie Wright, who was chasing after him when he was hit about 11:10 a.m., cops said.
The child’s panicked mother grabbed him and rushed him into Brookdale University Hospital but he couldn’t be saved.
The SUV driver sped off. No arrests have been made.