When an out-of-control vehicle barreled onto a sidewalk in Brooklyn, mowing down a small boy in a horrifying scene captured on surveillance video, everyone feared the worst.
The 3-year-old boy, Oscar Chen, was walking on the sidewalk in Sunset Park Monday afternoon when a car ran onto the sidewalk and hit some sort of small tree that knocked over Oscar, then ran over both the tree and the boy.
Twenty-four hours later, Oscar was back on the same sidewalk, running in circles and giggling as he flashed a toothy grin at reporters.
"Thank God. Thank God, he's fine," said Cindy Chen, Oscar's mother.
The Chens have lived above the Sunset Brooklyn stores on Seventh Avenue for 15 years, and Oscar is loved on the block, neighbors say. Several people rushed to help him when the car ran over him, and some even tried to lift up the car, video shows.
The boy's mother was hysterical.
"The car, it was so fast. It hit a tree, and the tree fell down and then my son was under the car," said Cindy Chen.
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Ultimately, emergency responders were able to get the boy out from underneath the car, and he was seen being taken away in a stretcher. He was taken to Lutheran Hospital.
"I didn't see obvious injuries," one neighbor told NBC 4 New York Monday. "He didn't appear to be in distress. I had someone call 911."
"Everything happened so fast," the bystander continued. "My main concern was getting to the child."
Chen said she was praying for a miraculous recovery but never dreamed her young son would walk out of the hospital just hours later with no medical issues.
"He's fine today, so appreciate it," she said.
The driver remained on the scene and had minor injuries, authorities said. Police said no criminality is suspected at this point, though the cause of the crash remains unclear.
