The chopper that crashed was en route to a car crash that hurt a child in North Lauderdale. NBC6’s Ari Odzer reports
The ripple effects from one car crash are absolutely tragic.
A possibly impaired driver lost control of his car Monday at the intersection of Prospect Road and State Road 7 in North Lauderdale, swerved and smashed into a bus stop, striking a mother and her four-year-old son. The Broward Sheriff’s Office air rescue helicopter was dispatched, but crashed on the way, killing one medic on board and a woman who was in her home.
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At the North Lauderdale scene, security camera video showed the car slamming into the boy, then it rolled to a stop over him. People rushed from nearby businesses to help. One man pulled the boy out from under the car while another, Juan Castillo, called 911 and was stunned when he was told the air rescue helicopter had crashed on its way to the scene.
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“That’s incredible, that’s amazing, I can’t believe it,” Castillo said.
“It broke my heart,” said Indira Suarez, who runs a pre-school in the same shopping plaza.
She ran outside when she heard the noise of the crash and recognized the boy as one of her students.
“When I came out, the child was on the ground, the mother was on the ground, and I pick up the child because I know it was one my students, he ran to me because he obviously know me, and the mother was on the ground but she couldn’t move. She was alert, though, she was telling me, 'my child, my child,' and I was telling her, 'he’s fine, don’t worry, he’s OK,'" Suarez said.
BSO is investigating to see if the driver was impaired. The driver, later identified as 20-year-old Josue Efrain Cardoza Murcia, was charged with driving without a license.
Sheriff Gregory Tony said the crew aboard the doomed helicopter notified North Lauderdale Fire Rescue that they weren’t going to make it.
“They were in the air within a minute, they were, you know, maydaying and putting out the distress within two minutes, and throughout that time they still had the foresight to notify the local fire department that they weren’t gonna be able to land and they needed to get there to rescue those people, so we’re talking about the character of these men and women, men in this case on this aviation unit, as they were fighting for their life, they were worried about somebody else’s," Tony said. "What else can you say about that type of character?"
The good Samaritans who rushed to help the victims at the bus stop had been wondering why air rescue did not arrive because the first responders had told them the helicopter was on the way.
“I’m shocked because I thought they transfer him in ambulance because he was alert," Suarez said. "I didn’t know, it didn’t even cross my mind, I said probably they cancel the plane because he was alert and moving. "t didn’t cross my mind then, now it really shocked me now that you’re telling me that."
The mother and the boy were taken to the hospital with what were described as non-life-threatening injuries.
