BRONX BOY PLAYING BALL IN STREET STRUCK AND INJURED BY HIT-AND-RUN DRIVER

From: New York attorney Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx; Bronx Accident Attorney)

Saturday , August 28, 2010 5-year-old Joshua Saunders was playing baseball with his 7-year-old brother in front of their house on East 214th Street in the Williamsbridge section of the Bronx at 6:30 p.m.

I a tragic accident, a hit-and-run driver crashed into the younger child - hurling the boy into the air "like a rag doll" and then speeding away as the boy crashed onto the pavement in front of his horrified family, cops and witnesses said.

Joshua Saunders was chasing a ball when a green Nissan Pathfinder sped down the street, smashed into the boy and drove on.

Joshua was in critical but stable condition at Jacobi Hospital last night.

"This psycho comes out of nowhere and knocks Joshua 30 feet into the air," said Norman Morgan, 47, a neighbor. "My heart sunk -- he looked like a rag doll in the air."

Family friend Cleve Brown, 44, said the driver kept going without a look back.

"He has no heart, and he needs to be behind bars," Brown said.

Police are still searching for the driver of the green Nissan Pathfinder that struck Joshua Saunders while he was playing with his brother around 6:30 p.m. on East 214th Street in Williamsbridge.

Apparently, the police have video footage from a home security system that should help them track down this heartless criminal perpetrator. On the video, Joshua is seen on the sidewalk, then getting a ball off the street, about three minutes before the accident.

Then, the green Nissan Pathfinder enters the frame, with a driver whose image is on-screen but blurry. Joshua went after the ball again and was struck, leaving him critically injured.

At a prayer vigil, the emotions were overwhelming for Joshua's sister, Arantxa. She was steps away when her little brother was hit, and the first to hold him as he struggled to survive.