NEW YORK, Aug. 15, 2008
Bystanders Lift Bus Off Pregnant Mom
Quick Action Saves NYC Woman's Baby, But She Dies
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Pedro Espada, Jr., second from left, president of the Soundview Healthcare Network, is joined by a group including clergy, community leaders and residents, as he speaks during a vigil outside St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx, New York, Aug. 15, 2008. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)
Seven months pregnant, Donnette Sanz was crossing one of the busiest intersections in the Bronx on her lunch break when she was struck by a van whose brakes failed. The impact sent the 33-year-old police department traffic agent flying into the path of a yellow school bus and pinned her underneath.
About 30 people helped lift the bus, and Sanz was rushed to a hospital, where doctors delivered her boy by Caesarean section. The 3-pound, 6-ounce infant, named Sean Michael, was in critical condition Friday but showing signs of improvement.
Mourners and neighborhood residents gathered outside the hospital to pray for Sanz and her child.
The 72-year-old van driver, Walter Walker, pleaded not guilty to criminally negligent homicide and aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle. He was being held on $100,000 bail, and his attorney didn't immediately return a phone call.
A day after welcoming his miracle baby into the world, the victim's husband lashed out at Walker, reports CBS station WCBS-TV in New York.
"I hope that guy rots in hell," said Rafael Sanz.
Police said in a court filing that the brakes on Walker's van had deteriorated so badly that the vehicle was unsafe to drive. Walker told investigators he had some repairs done six months ago but knew there were still problems.
Police said Walker's license has been suspended 20 times, most recently for failure to pay parking tickets. He had previously been sentenced to probation and fines for driving offenses.
"We was riding along, coming down the hill," John Dargan, a passenger in Walker's van, told the Daily News. "He said, 'Oh, my Lord, I don't have no brakes.' It happened so quick. I just closed my eyes."
Walker told the New York Post: "The light turned red, and I couldn't stop. I tried to miss her." He said he had been using his brother's van to help a friend move.
Sanz, a Bronx resident, had been a civilian member of the New York Police Department for two years.
Bystanders, including Gary Burgess, came in waves to lift the mini school bus from Sanz's body.
"It was the human thing to do," said Burgess, 50.
There were no children on the bus at the time.
Sanz survived the delivery in an emergency operating room at St. Barnabas Hospital but died about an hour later, spokesman Fred Winters said.
The baby was taken to the neonatal intensive-care unit and placed on a ventilator. He was still in critical condition Friday but "is basically healthy," Winters said.
At the hospital on Thursday, Mayor Michael Bloomberg met with Sanz's husband, Rafael, to offer his condolences.
"It's a terrible poignancy that Donnette's son's birthday will now coincide with the day his mother died," the mayor said. "I hope that as this child grows up, he comes to understand that his mother gave her life in service to our city and that we are forever grateful."
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See all 68 Commentslol
He needs to go to jail and forfeit his Social Security.
The report said
"Police said in a court filing that the brakes on Walker''s van had deteriorated so badly that the vehicle was unsafe to drive. Walker told investigators he had some repairs done six months ago but knew there were still problems.
Police said Walker''s license has been suspended 20 times, most recently for failure to pay parking tickets. He had previously been sentenced to probation and fines for driving offenses."
Must be confused on the term probation unlicensed that usually no insurance, and no care
Not a Nice Situation
I hope the baby Servives
Officer Donnette Sanz REST-IN-PEACE!
Stupid old f a r t should have had the brakes on the van fixed. You think driving is a game, geezer? Straight to the nursing home with you! If that was my mother you killed, I would have turned your wrinkled body into a human pretzel.
Wasnt biblethumping, just pointing out that you were expressly telling someone to be nice and proceeding to be quite rude in telling them...double standard sort of thing... "Do as I say, not as I do." But that''s not what the story is about. It''s about some unfortunate(by our human standard) woman meeting her end, and a guy in a van who probably made a mistake in judgement...and life in its smallest viable form surviving. May God Bless him and keep him and her relatives... and you :)
Too bad the mother died, but they did save the baby''''s life.
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Posted by erb0087 at 05:28 PM : Aug 15, 2008
+ report abuse
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adrenaline makes the body do wonders..
thank you..
What these people did for Ms. Sanz and her unborn baby was not just the RIGHT thing to do - it was the HUMAN thing to do. Life is far too precious to ignore someone in an emergency.
Put your bigotry, hatred, racism, political leanings, opinions, and everything else aside and just be HUMAN again. These people that helped - I hope your karma is blessed 10-fold!
I pray her baby boy - Sean Michael Sanz - realizes when he gets older that while his mother died on the day of his birth, that the human spirit of compassion and respect for life couldn''t have been any stronger or been shown with more grace than it was on his special day.
The world would be a far more beautiful place if we just ''gave a ***'' like these Bronx onlookers did. May they be blessed!
Posted by pat1967 at 06:42 PM : Aug 15, 2008
You tell''em Prof'', its the ''Gravity'' of the situation.
Excuse me, 21 people.
Still that''s almost 500 pounds per person, and I bet they all weren''t big construction workers.
Too bad the mother died, but they did save the baby''s life.
So a 5-ton bus 10,000 pounds.
For a small crowd of 10 or so people to lift that much even partially off the ground is incredible, particularly since it was a large object to get ahold of, not something compact.
The human body is capable of amazing things in an emergency.
Posted by SistaTee at 05:11 PM : Aug 15, 2008
Siss on you Pister, you ain''t so mucking ****.
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