The heroism of three parents likely saved the life of a 5-year-old girl who was pulled underneath a van and dragged some 30 feet after her coat snagged on the vehicle.
Gabriela Pizano, 24, was standing with a group of other mothers and their children at a school bus stop in unincorporated Elk Grove Township Wednesday morning when she heard screams and then saw one of her neighbors, Daniel Segura, 37, running toward a van.
“I looked at the van and saw a coat underneath and what looked like a little hand,” Pizano said. “I ran to the driver’s side and banged on the window and told the driver she had a child caught under her car.”
As driver Guadalupe Martinez jumped out of the car to help in the rescue, Segura, who had fallen as he chased the van, slid under to try to free the child.
“When I tried to pull her from under the van, what I saw really broke my heart,” Segura said, speaking in Spanish. “Her face, the skin was all pulled away. One of her legs was folded under her.”
Kira Anderson, a kindergartner at Byrd Elementary School in Elk Grove Village, was listed in serious condition at Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge on Thursday following surgery for head, face and chest injuries. The 5-year-old’s injuries were not listed as life-threatening, said hospital spokeswoman Adrienne Dimopoulos.
“Kira is doing fine, and the doctors say she will recover,” said Paula Petridge, Kira’s mother. “She is more alert today.”
Kira lives with a sister, Melissa Anderson, and her father, Don Anderson, at the Des Plaines Mobile Home Park, 500 W. Touhy Ave. Petridge lives in Kenosha, Wis.
A baby-sitter was helping children board the bus for school when the accident took place inside the mobile home park in an unincorporated area between Elk Grove Village and Des Plaines.
Pizano said she and Martinez, 30, lifted the van just enough so that Segura could pull the child’s coat loose from under the tires and remove her from the van’s undercarriage.
“We put our coats over her, and I stayed with her until the ambulance came,” said Pizano, who has a 7-year-old son. “I asked her how she was, and she said, `I don’t feel so good.’ “
The school bus stops at a circular driveway in front of the mobile home office, and co-manager Gloria Taylor said it is the safest place for the children to be picked up. It is out of the way of heavy traffic.
“The bus was parked, and the van was two vehicles in front of it,” said Taylor, who lives on-site but did not see the accident. “We will be sending fliers to all residents (telling them) they have to be aware of where their children are at all times.”
Martinez, who was driving a 1993 Chevrolet van, had just dropped off her two children to board the bus when the accident occurred. The Cook County sheriff’s police charged her with failure to yield the right of way to a pedestrian.
George Taylor, another park manager, said the van had been moving slowly and had stopped due to heavy traffic on Touhy. Luckily for the girl, the heavy traffic prevented the van from entering Touhy, enabling the parents to rescue her.
Alexandra Ruiz saw the aftermath of the accident after a neighbor ran to her door and told her to call 911.
“People were crying and taking kids off the bus,” Ruiz said. “Kids were throwing up.”
Psychologists were on hand at the school Thursday to talk with children who saw the accident. Elk Grove Township Elementary School District 59 will re-examine its school bus safety policies, said Supt. Robert Howard.
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