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Young Girl Seriously Hurt After Van Strikes Her in Brooklyn, Police Say

By  Rachel Holliday Smith and Trevor Kapp | October 10, 2017 9:12am | Updated on October 10, 2017 3:30pm

 A young girl was seriously injured Tuesday when a dollar van — large commuter vans that drive bus routes and pick up passengers for $2 a ride — struck her at the corner of Utica and Church avenues, pictured here.
A young girl was seriously injured Tuesday when a dollar van — large commuter vans that drive bus routes and pick up passengers for $2 a ride — struck her at the corner of Utica and Church avenues, pictured here.
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DNAinfo/Rachel Holliday Smith

EAST FLATBUSH — A young girl was seriously hurt Tuesday morning when she darted into the street and was hit by a van driver at a notoriously dangerous East Flatbush intersection, police and witnesses said.

The 10-year-old girl was struck near the intersection of Utica and Church avenues around 7:40 a.m., the NYPD said.

She was taken to Kings County Hospital in serious but stable condition, police said.

Witnesses said the girl, who was alone at the time, crossed Utica Avenue on the intersection's north side while running toward a B46 bus stop, when the driver of a dollar van heading northbound struck her.

The van's driver, a man whose name and age were not immediately released, stayed at the scene, police said. The driver had a green light at the time of the crash, the NYPD said, and investigators determined there was no criminality.

One witness who was standing across the street at the time of the crash said the girl was running to catch the walk signal on Utica Avenue when the crash happened.

"She run that quick and then the van come — pew!" he said, clapping his hands together.

The girl was bleeding from the head but conscious immediately after the crash, he said.

Raymond Kellier, 67, who works across the street, saw the crash site moments after and said the girl was pinned underneath the van before being taken away in an ambulance.

"I was looking at her and I break down," he said. "Could have been one of my grandkids."

The intersection where the girl was hit is notoriously treacherous for pedestrians.

Three people have already been injured there in crashes this year, according city data.

At least 35 people have been hurt at that intersection since 2009, the earliest year for which the city provides data.