TODDLER KILLED BY SUV IN QUEENS

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

On Monday September 13, 2010, a two-year-old girl, Shamira Zaman, strayed into the street a few feet from her grandmother and aunt--both standing outside of their home on 211th Street between 89th Rd. and 89th Ave., in Bellerose, Queens County, at about 2:22 p.m,

As the little girl walked into the middle of 211th Street, she was knocked down by a silver Toyota Rav-4 driven by a 55-year-old woman, cops said. The girl, Shamira Zaman, died at Queens Hospital Center. She lived with her family steps away from where she was fatally hit.

"Shamira was in the street--my smallest granddaughter--and my wife was outside, when another car came up and hit her," her grief-stricken grandfather said. A retired nurse and next door neighbor Yvonne Mckenzie, 64, called 911 after she saw the child lying motionless and was heard the family's horrific cries.

"We heard screaming, loud screams [and] I thought somebody was getting beat up or something but it was the family, the mom and the grandmother screaming.

"Then they picked her up and put her on the grass. I saw the baby lying there. There was a little blood on her right forearm and right wrist but it wasn't much. Then I ran inside and called 911."

McKenzie said a Good Samaritan rushed to help Shamira.

"[He] came out of nowhere from across the street and started doing CPR," she added.

"He said there was a heartbeat, so she must have been alive."

McKenzie said the hero was clad in blue hospital scrubs and she thought he might have been a doctor.

Emergency responders rushed the victim to nearby Queens General Hospital where she died.

The devastated driver, a 55-year-old woman in a Toyota RAV4 hybrid, stayed at the scene and was not charged with a crime.