Mom and 6-Year-Old Son Struck by Car at Tampa Bus Stop: ‘Afraid to Walk to Bus’

A mother and son are recovering after they—along with four other kids and another adult—were hit by a car at a Tampa, Florida, bus stop.

Laura Chavez and her son walk with the same group of people to the bus stop, and they were both hurt when the vehicle hit them, ABC Action News reported. They were taken to St. Joseph’s Hospital before they were released in the Nov. 1 incident.

“She’s thankful that nothing severe happened to her. She’s happy that nobody died or had serious complications that they couldn’t survive,” Erik Patino, her son, said, adding that his mother can’t speak English.

Enrique Antonio Tobias Patino, 6, her other son, was cut in the back of his head and scraped his leg, the ABC affiliate report stated.

“They were confident that he was stopping—like he was stopping and—like not,” Erik Patino said of the driver that hit them. He added that his mother and brother tried to step forward to cross the street, but the car then hit them.

“She got my little brother and the cousin of the girls. She got them and she doesn’t remember anything of what happened,” he said. The woman then woke up and saw first responders around her.

“She doesn’t know what happened. She wants to know why,” he said.

Police told the Tampa Bay Times that the driver of the vehicle was speeding when he hit the kids at the bus stop.

“They watched as it happened as he ran off the road and trampled all of them,” Lakrisha Wilcox, a witness, told the paper.

Alexandra Torres-Banegas, 6; Allinson Galindo, 6; Perla Galindo, 12; Sandy Quintana, 9; Enrique Antonio Tobias Patino, 6; Yanely Jurado, 31; and Laura Patino Chavez, 32; were identified as the victims.

“I ran outside and I saw a bunch of kids lying on the sidewalk,” said Ray Kent, another witness.