A mother and her child were struck by a truck while trying to cross a DeKalb County street Wednesday morning, killing the woman and seriously injuring the child, police said.
DeKalb police Capt. S.R. Fore said the two were attempting to cross Durham Park Road around daybreak when they were hit by a private utility truck.
Samsun Hahar, 37, was killed, Fore said. Her 11-year-old son, Shahbin Hossain, is at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston reportedly in stable condition, Fore said, but police do not know the extent of his injuries.
Fore said the driver of the utility truck remained on the scene and will not face charges in the incident.
“There is a crosswalk on Durham Park Road further up, but the mother and child did not use it,” Fore said in an email.
Theresa Eady witnessed the accident as she was walking her grandchildren to a nearby bus stop.
“The mother and son were crossing the street,” she told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “They crossed halfway – you know how you stand in the middle of the street for the other way to clear – but they didn’t wait for it to clear, and they kind of ran out in front of the truck and it him them. I saw them go in the air and hit the ground.”
She said the truck driver immediately stopped.
“I’m not sure if he even knew what he hit,” Eady said. “He got out of the truck and was like, ‘Oh, my God.’”
She said she walked over to check on the woman and boy.
“She was trying to breathe, but by the time the paramedics got here, she had taken her last breath,” Eady said.
“They rushed the little boy to the hospital; he was all bent and broken up all kinds of ways. They took him and left the mom there. They knew she was already dead.”
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