The efforts of the police and bystanders paid off after they successfully lifted a crashed car off a baby, who is now recovering with her mother.
It was a miracle that a mother and baby survived a terrible ordeal, said Officer Rocco Fusco. Now the 8-month-old girl and her mother are on the road to recovery after a heroic effort by police officers and bystanders who rescued them from beneath a vehicle that crashed through the window of a New York barbershop.
The Yonkers Police Department was responding to a vehicular accident on Friday at 8:30 a.m. when a driver who was trying to make a left turn “struck a curb, a parked vehicle, two pedestrians, and accelerated into the storefront of a barbershop.”
Officers Rocco Fusco and Paul Samoyedny were at a bagel shop having breakfast when they heard the crash nearby, a release said. When they went to investigate, they found the 36-year-old mother in the wreckage and her child trapped under the car.
The brave officers and bystanders lifted the car off of the infant and administered medical attention to both, before transporting them to a local trauma center. A video on YouTube by the Yonkers Police Department shows graphic surveillance and bodycam footage of the incident when the group lifted the car off of the crying infant.
The mother had a serious femur fracture, while the child has a skull fracture and third-degree burns on her back and foot, the release said. Both are expected to survive. “It’s honestly a miracle that both of them survived — very strong mom and an even stronger little infant,” Fusco said.
The barbershop owner also sustained a minor laceration, but no other injuries were reported, police said. The driver was identified as 43-year-old Yonkers resident David Poncurak who was with a female passenger when the incident happened. Both have been detained at the scene, and neither reported any injuries, according to the release.
An investigation concluded that he was driving with a suspended license and alcohol in the car, his blood was tested to determine the alcohol/drug content in his blood. He has been charged with driving while intoxicated, second-degree vehicular assault, and second-degree aggravated unlicensed operation. Poncurak “did get out and immediately went over to see if the woman was okay,” Officer Samoyedny said.
“It is always a tragedy when someone is injured by the reckless and criminal acts of another person, and that is only amplified when those injured include an infant,” Police Commissioner John J. Mueller said in a statement. “The actions taken are nothing short of heroic. The individual arrested in this incident will now have to face the consequences of his alleged behavior.”