A hit-and-run driver going the wrong way on a Brooklyn street set in motion a deadly chain of events that killed a three-month-old girl, left her mother in critical condition and injured three other people on Saturday evening, police and law-enforcement sources said.
The erratic motorist first T-boned a black 2020 Honda Civic at the intersection of Gates and Vanderbilt Avenues in Clinton Hill at around 6:20 p.m., injuring the driver, a 49-year-old woman, according to the NYPD.
The impact caused one or both of the vehicles to barrel into the 32-year-old mother, who was pushing her daughter in a stroller, police said. A 39-year-old man was also injured, according to cops.
The baby was sent flying 15 to 20 feet, according to one witness. She was taken to Brooklyn Hospital in critical condition, and was later pronounced dead, police and the sources said.
Her mother was in critical condition and undergoing surgery at Methodist Hospital. The driver of the black Honda was also being treated there for less serious injuries, the NYPD said.
The male pedestrian was being treated at Brooklyn Hospital, and is expected to recover, according to cops.
The driver behind the mayhem — who was in 2017 silver Honda Civic — fled the scene on foot and remained in the wind, cops said. A passenger in his car, a 29-year-old man, also tried to run off before officers caught him, cops said. He was brought to Methodist Hospital.
The witness, who declined to give his name, told The Post he saw the silver Honda “speeding” and “almost hit some bikers” a few blocks away.
The erratic driver then slammed into the black car “and then hit a family – a husband, baby and mother,” according to the witness.
“They went flying,” said the man, adding that he called 911 after the shocking incident.
“The guy got out and ran,” he said. “The mother was unconscious. The father picked up the baby and tried to run [her] to the hospital.”
Jonathan Pettibone, 43, was parking his car when he saw the deranged driver going “very erratically and very fast” in the wrong direction on Clermont Avenue.
“Shortly thereafter, I heard a big bang and I said to myself the way they were driving, it had something to do with that car.”
Pettibone, the owner of a construction business, said he walked over to the site of the crash and saw the immediate aftermath of the disaster.
“I heard people screaming and came over here. I saw a man holding his baby and it was bleeding and a woman was on the ground.”
“It’s awful,” Pettibone added. “I live in New York and you see crazy things. This is one of the craziest things I’ve ever seen.”
“There’s aggressive driving then there is this. This was another level I’ve never seen.”
Neta Chizhik, 25, lives on nearby Clinton Ave, and saw cops run into the C train station as police searched for the fleeing killer driver.
“This whole area has a lot of young families…everyone is walking around with strollers. It’s really scary,” Chizhik said.
Photos of the accident’s aftermath showed the baby’s stroller still on the scene hours later, along with the damaged black car and the smashed up silver vehicle the suspect was driving.
