Police: Driver Who Crashed Into Queens Car Wash, Killing 10-Year-Old Davina Afokobo, Had Only Learner's Permit
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A Queens community remains heartbroken and a family has been changed forever following a deadly crash in Far Rockaway.
And police confirmed to CBS2's Cindy Hsu on Thursday the driver involved had only a learner's permit.
Police and the Department of Buildings returned to the scene of the deadly crash at a car wash on Beach Channel Drive. The accident Wednesday killed 10-year-old Davina Afokobo and sent the driver and another woman to the hospital, CBS2's John Dias reported.
"God gained an angel, but a parent lost a child," said Legend Jones, who works nearby.
Loved ones said Afokobo was walking home from school with her older brother when a black SUV came crashing into the car wash as the driver was exiting a parking lot.
Afokobo was pinned.
Jones was one of the good Samaritans who tried to help.
"I told the little girl, 'Hey, you're gonna be alright. We'll try to get you out here.' But once them beams came down, it was about nothing you can do," Jones said.
According to police, a 34-year-old woman was behind the wheel. A sticker on the SUV's back window read "NEW DRIVER Please Be Patient," but it was not immediately clear if it was referring to the woman.
City Council member Selvena Brooks-Powers, who is the chairman of the Transportation Infrastructure Committee, said there could many factors that may have played a role in the crash, Hsu reported.
"Sometimes the cars are going a little bit quick. There's a lot of congestion in the area. The roads are, you know, not evenly paved right now," Brooks-Powers said.
"I don't know if she got nervous, she got scared, if her foot got stuck or what, but she just kept going," Jones said.
There were heavy hearts at Challenge Charter Middle School on Thursday. The CEO said grief counselors were on site for Afokobo's fifth-grade classmates.
"It's hard for everyone, and the children specifically," Dr. Les Mullings said.
Afokobo and her siblings were enrolled at the school since kindergarten. The family is from Nigeria.
"Very nice family. Very well respected, well disciplined kids. No problem. They're perfect children, if there's such thing as perfect," Mullings said.
Their grief was compounded due to the recent tragic loss of another classmate. Justin Wallace was fatally shot in the stomach outside a relative's home days before his 11th birthday last summer.
"At this point in time, we are taking it day by day and we are making sure we are there for the children, we are there for the family," Mullings said.
CBS2 was told the driver, who police said is licensed, struck another woman during the crash. Both were in stable condition at the hospital.
So far, no arrests have been made.
CBS2's Cindy Hsu contributed to this report.
