TODDLERS IN STROLLER INJURED AFTER MULTICAR CRASH IN BROOKLYN

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

A 9-month-old boy was in critical condition after a livery cab struck a double-parked beige Toyota Tundra and rebounded into him, his twin brother and their mom in Brooklyn on Sunday, police and witnesses said.

The mother, identified by friends as Patricia Machuca, 21, was visiting from Baltimore with her husband, Miguel, and their 9-month-old twins, Gustavo and Daniel. Machuca and the twins were preparing to get into a friend's parked Toyota Tundra pickup truck for the drive back to Baltimore, witnesses said, when disaster struck.

Patricia Mechuca, 21, was pushing a stroller with her sons, Gustavo and Daniel, on Fourth Avenue near 44th Street in Sunset Park at around 1:15 p.m. when the livery cab, a Ford Crown Victoria traveling south on Fourth Ave., lost control.

"The babies were on the ground," said family friend Ismael Remigio, 26, the owner of the Toyota. "It was scary."

All of the injured were taken to Lutheran Medical Center. Both babies suffered head injuries. One was in critical condition last night, and the other in stable condition. Their mother was in stable condition with cuts and bruises.

"I thought she was dead," Remigio said of Machuca. "She was bleeding from her nose, her mouth, her neck. She was unconscious."

"She's a nice person and a good mother," Remigio added."We were about to leave. I went upstairs and two minutes later, I heard the crash," he said.

The livery driver, Gregorio Patino, 57, was hospitalized with chest pains in stable condition. He was charged with aggravated unlicensed operation of a vehicle (driving without a license), reckless driving and imprudent speed, cops said. He passed a Breathalyzer test.

The cabbie's three passengers, a 40-year-old woman and two boys, 8 and 16, were in stable condition.

Witness Carlos Barera, 25, said the cab sideswiped his vehicle before hitting the double-parked minivan. The cab was speeding, Barera and other witnesses said.

"He was driving like crazy," said Barera. "I couldn't believe it. Everything happened so fast."