WESTFIELD —A6-year-old child is recovering from injuries sustained after being struck by a motor vehicle on Friday afternoon.
According to information provided by the Westfield Police Department, the child, whose name has not been released, was hit near the 200 block of South Avenue East at approximately 1:45 p.m. while attempting to cross the street with his older brother. The child was temporarily pinned to the ground by a motor vehicle that was attempting to pull out of a nearby parking lot.
“It was initially reported by witnesses that the child was run over at chest level, but this is not the case,” police said, adding that the boy’s “lower leg and foot” were caught under the vehicle during the incident. The child was struck by a driver traveling at “low speeds,” police said, and was taken to University Hospital in Newark, where he was treated for a fractured leg.
No further details were available at the time of publication, but police said the boy’s injuries are “not life threatening.”
The cause of the accident currently is under investigation, police said, but authorities noted that it appears as though the driver was not paying attention while exiting the parking lot.
No other injuries have been reported, and no charges have yet been filed in connection with the incident.
Another pedestrian, a man in his mid-20s, was struck while attempting to cross the same stretch of South Avenue — which includes residential homes and a multi-store shopping plaza — in January of this year.
