{"id":179692,"date":"2026-04-29T22:17:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T22:17:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/179692\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T22:17:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T22:17:07","slug":"philadelphia-streamer-and-pastor-hit-by-car-while-on-cross-country-walk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/179692\/","title":{"rendered":"Philadelphia streamer and pastor hit by car while on cross-country walk"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Isaiah Thomas was on day 34 of his cross-country trek from Philadelphia to California when he was suddenly hit by a driver while livestreaming on Twitch.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The 27-year-old is from North Philadelphia and is also known as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/ministerzay\/?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Minister Zay<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.twitch.tv\/hmblzayy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">hmblzayy<\/a> online. On March 26, he set out to walk 3,000 miles from Philadelphia to California to raise funds for a faith-based trade school for students in Philly. Every day, Thomas has been taking viewers along the journey in real time.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DXr8aJRkp2q\/?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">viral video<\/a> shows Thomas walking and pushing a cart on Route 40 in Richmond, Indiana Tuesday afternoon.<\/p>\n<p>A dark blue Mazda can be seen trailing behind him for safety. The driver in that car was one of his viewers on Twitch who came out to support his mission.<\/p>\n<p>A chain reaction unfolds as a silver Buick hits the Mazda, which then runs into Thomas, leading to the chaotic moment.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;From that moment on, I just felt something hit me from the back, and I just went flying in the air,&#8221; Thomas said. &#8220;It felt like everything was in slow motion.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Thomas was able to get back up on his feet almost immediately.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When I got hit, I just was thinking, I just hope it&#8217;s not over yet,&#8221; Thomas said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Police arrived on the scene and Thomas was then taken to a nearby hospital, where he found out he had a sprained ankle, bruising and a concussion. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Wayne County Sheriff&#8217;s Office said the driver of the silver Buick was an 82-year-old and a minor was in the passenger seat. The two were also taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It was a crazy experience, but I&#8217;m just blessed to not have major injuries,&#8221; Thomas said.<\/p>\n<p>Regardless of the shocking incident, Thomas said he&#8217;s not backing down from completing his walk to California. He&#8217;ll be resting for the next few days before returning to the exact spot where he was hit and continuing his walk.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I want to be able to show the world that all things are possible, Thomas said. &#8220;You just got to keep pushing.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He plans to raise $200,000 to open up HMBL University, which will give high school graduates opportunities to reach their career goals in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a blessing to just have thousands of people watching every day and we are encouraging each other, praying for each other,&#8221; Thomas said. &#8220;So, it&#8217;s bigger than just a walk. It&#8217;s a movement.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Police are investigating the incident, according to the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.co.wayne.in.us\/sheriff\/pressreleases\/2026-04-28US40Crash.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Wayne County Sheriff&#8217;s Office<\/a>. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/CUYg4jHLnXj\/?igsh=MXdienpzM3c3cGx1MA%3D%3D\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">CBS News Philadelphia first met Thomas in 2021<\/a>, when the young entrepreneur was awarded $50,000 through the station&#8217;s former Small Wins grant program, which provided funding to small businesses in the Philadelphia area.<\/p>\n<p>At the time, Thomas had recently opened a store at Willow Grove Park Mall for his clothing line, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stay-hmbl.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Stay Humble Stay Hungry<\/a> \u2014 a brand that quickly gained traction in Philadelphia and other Northeastern cities, helping to catapult his success.<\/p>\n<p>\n          More from CBS News\n        <\/p>\n<p class=\"content__tags__label\">In:<\/p>\n<p>  <script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Isaiah Thomas was on day 34 of his cross-country trek from Philadelphia to California when he was suddenly&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179693,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2350,10744,221,69,71,70],"class_list":["post-179692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-fundraiser","tag-indiana","tag-north-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}