FORDHAM HEIGHTS — A parked tractor trailer with faulty brakes careened down a sloping Bronx street Monday afternoon, crashing through the front of a children's health clinic on East 188th Street.
No one was physically injured in the incident, police said, though a few people were taken to the hospital for emotional shock. Witnesses at the scene said the truck, parked on a slight hill on Elm Place in Fordham Heights, suddenly starting rolling toward East 188th Street.
Robert Lozada, 52, said he was walking with his two sons on Elm Place when the vehicle started to move, and they took cover in a building nearby.
"When the kids see it coming, they ran into the building," he said.
The driver ran after the vehicle, Lozada said, but wasn't able to stop it in time. The truck rolled across East 188th Street and smashed through the front of Medikids Pediatrics, a children's doctor's office.
The vehicle was a delivery truck for V.I.M., a clothing store on East Tremont Avenue. Police said the accident was attributed to faulty brakes, and no criminality was involved.
A crowd gathered at the scene Monday afternoon. Neighbors said the street was normally teeming with children attending the medical clinic and those coming from a nearby elementary school, which was fortunately closed yesterday for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.
"It's usually crowded on weekdays like this," said one resident, Willie, 48, who declined to give his last name but said he lived a block away. "They're lucky it's not a day when it was busy. There's always a lot of kids in there."
