Two children were hurt Thursday afternoon when they were hit by a car and thrown about 30 feet on 15th Street in Allentown, according to police and security video.
An 11-year-old girl was leading a 3-year-old boy west across 15th Street, about 150 feet north of Linden Street, at 5:25 p.m. when a southbound car hit them, tossing them down 15th.
Northbound rush-hour traffic, which had backed up on 15th Street, appeared to have blocked the view of both the children and the woman driving the car that hit them.
The woman stopped immediately at the scene and went to help the children, witnesses said.
A security video taken from the 15th Street home of Pete Ortiz shows the two children stepping behind a stopped northbound car, and after a pause, stepping into the path of the moving southbound car.
"It isn't pretty," Ortiz said as he reviewed the video at his house.
The video shows both children taking a strong impact and flying. Both of them land on the pavement and roll before they stop.
"It's lucky they didn't go under that car," Ortiz said.
On the video, both children get up immediately after they roll, and the girl runs to the boy.
Allentown medics radioed that the girl reported abdominal pain after the crash, and the little boy had no obviously serious wounds. But after seeing the video, the medics decided both needed a thorough checkup.
Both were taken to Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest.
On Thursday night, police Assistant Chief Gail Struss said the two children will be fine.
"They only have minor injuries," she said. "I guess it looked a lot worse [in the video] than it was."
The driver probably will not be charged in the accident, Struss added.
"It appears it was not the driver's fault," she said.
Ortiz and his wife said they don't want to release the crash video for public view out of respect for the children's family and because they wanted police to examine the video.
— Frank Warner
Source: Allentown girl and boy fly as car hits them on 15th Street; both hospitalized
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