In this photo taken from security video, a man jumps out of the way as a U-Haul truck drives onto the sidewalk, Monday, Feb. 13, 2023, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. Authorities say a man driving a U-Haul truck struck and injured several pedestrians in New York City before police were able to pin the careening vehicle against a building following a mileslong pursuit through Brooklyn. Jorge Aldaz via AP
A 66-year-old man who saved himself from a rampaging U-Haul truck driver with a frantic leap on a Brooklyn sidewalk said he doesn’t know how he managed to escape.
Mohamed Abdelmagid, a car service driver, was strolling to his dispatch office Monday morning when he looked up from his phone just in time to see the truck barrel onto the sidewalk.
His reaction was caught on surveillance video — an attempt to sidestep the rushing truck and then a desperate dive to the concrete that sent him to the hospital with cracked ribs and a fractured ankle. The truck passed so close, Abdelmagid said it clipped his foot as he dove.
Then, the prone Abdelmagid was nearly run over by a police car flying up the sidewalk in pursuit of the U-Haul.
“I don’t know what happened,” Abdelmagid told The Associated Press by phone Tuesday as he was waiting to be discharged from the hospital. “I go to (the) right. After that I go to (the) left and I jumped.”
He joked that it was his physical education training from growing up in Egypt that served him well.
“That’s why I’m still young,” he said. “I’m 66, but I look like 46.”
Abdelmagid was lucky to survive. The truck, driven by a man with a history of violence and mental illness, hit at least nine people as it wove through the streets of Brooklyn’s Bay Ridge section.
One man, age 44, died from a head injury as the truck veered into scooters and cyclists and drove onto sidewalks.
The man driving the U-Haul, identified by his son as Weng Sor, 62, was arrested after police were able to corner the truck near the…
Read the full article here
Leave a Reply