Good Samaritans Rescue Harlem Boy Struck by Taxi

Investigators talk to a cabbie who collided with a 10-year-old boy at 75 La Salle Street Wednesday. No criminality was ...

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DNAinfo/Ben Fractenberg

By Ben Fractenberg and Tom Liddy

DNAinfo Staff

MANHATTAN - A 10-year-old boy was struck by a taxi and seriously injured in Harlem Wednesday evening in a horrifying crash, authorities and witnesses said.

But Good Samaritans, who witnessed the smashup at 75 La Salle Street, near Broadway, rushed into action, lifting a parked car off the boy in attempt to save him.

The accident unfolded at 7:36 p.m. after the boy darted into the street, colliding with a passing cab, witnesses and neighbors said.

The impact was so violent that the boy was tossed under a parked car.

"The little kid ran into the car," said Sabrina Johnson, 39. "The impact spun him around.  We had to pick the [parked] car up to get the child out.

"It was just shocking. It was just horrific."

Debra Blackman, 49, said that she was sitting in a nearby courtyard when she heard the crash.

"Alli I heard was the boom," she said. "We ran over and saw his sneaker on the street.

"I was talking to him, but he wouldn't respond.  It made me cry."

Witnesses said that after the crash, the cabbie slowed down and came back to the scene, looking "devastated."

After the crash, the boy's mother dashed out into the road without any shoes on.

Johnson said that the boy had been playing tag with another child who chased him into the street.

A pediatrician, Sabrina Martin, was parking her car, but sprang into action after the crash.

"I said, 'Call 911,' " she said. "I thought he was dead."

But then she felt a faint pulse and propped his head back, making it easier for him to breathe.

The boy was taken to Harlem Hospital in stable condition.

Police did not suspect any criminality in the crash.

This is the car that good Samaritans lifted off a boy who was hit by a cab at 75 La Salle St. Wednesday afternoon

DNAinfo/Ben Fractenberg