Two best friends were dragged to their deaths under a dump truck that slammed into them on their way home from elementary school – as horrified witnesses screamed at the driver to stop.
Fifth-graders Juan Estrada, 10, and Victor Flores, 11 – both lovingly nicknamed “Angel” by their parents – were standing in a crosswalk just a block from their Park Slope apartments when the red 10-wheeler making a right turn, rammed them and dragged them nine feet, witnesses said.
“One kid was stuck under a tire, the other was under the middle of the truck, bleeding from his mouth and ears,” said witness Mildred Caraballo, who sobbed as she described the horrific accident that unfolded at 3:30 p.m. at Third Avenue and Ninth Street.
“He hit them and he kept going. He dragged them – you can see the drag marks for maybe eight or nine feet,” said Caraballo, 39.
“The driver didn’t know he hit anybody,” she said.
“We ran out of the deli and we were yelling, ‘Stop! Stop! You’ve hit somebody!’ and he stopped. He stopped on one of the boys’ heads,” she said.
Caraballo and other witnesses said the truck driver was on Third, making a right onto Ninth, and apparently didn’t see the two youngsters from his raised cab.
John Carty witnessed the tragedy.
“They were standing a little bit out from the sidewalk and this truck came turning around the corner. I don’t think he saw the two little ones from that high up,” said Carty.
After stopping, the driver “jumped out and once he realized what had happened he jumped back up and said he was going to move the truck and everybody yelled at him not to because he would smash the other boy under the truck,” said Carty.
Witnesses said the driver – identified by police as John Olson, 58, of Olson’s Creative Landscaping of Bellmore, L.I. – was badly shaken up.
“He didn’t know what to do, he was pacing up and down. People were getting emotional and hostile at him until the police put him in a car and drove him away,” said Carty.
༺Police said the deaths appeared to be the reඣsult of a tragic accident.
Juan, who had been pinned under a wheel, was pronounced dead at the scene after firefighters jacked up the ꦅtꦜruck and freed him.
Victor was pronounced dead a short ti🃏me later at Methodꦡist Hospital.
♉ Carty said a friend administered CPR to Victor while he lay under🃏 the truck.
“He asked the boy’s name and he told us, and we waited with him. He was very brave,” said Carty.
Juan’s distraught mother, Emma Ortega, rushed to the scene after hearing about the accident. Police whisked her away before telling her that her son had died.
Her daughter,🌳 Alicia, 14, said her mother probably will never forgive herself for not walking her youngest child home from PS 124.
“There are some cars that just run right through that street even if it says ‘Walk,’ ” she said.
“Most times, when my mother isn’t working, she picks him up. He only walks this way when she can’t be with him.”
She said her mo🌺ther is a housekeeper;🌄 her father, Juan, a construction worker.
“I’m just so sad. I’m just so shocked,” said Alicia, who described her baby brother as “a typical 10-year-old” who was “very energetic” and “loved playing baseball.”
Neighbors said both youngsters weꦺre the children of hard-working Mexican immigrants.
She said Juan and his best buddꦯy, Victor, shared the nickna♛me Angel.
As night fell, neighbors gathered at the accident scene, shuddering at the sight of the boys’ ripped jackets pinned under the truck, and their battered book bags, which had been dragged with them before the truck came to a halt.
Carlos Santos, who works in the barbershop in the Estrada’s building on Ninth Street, said Juan would come in occasionally selling candy bars to raise money for school projects.
“He was a beautiful kid, a peaceful kid,” said Santos. “He didn’t hang around on the street much. He just came from school every day and he’d go upstairs and study.”
Juan’s uncle, Jose Tapia, stood vigil at the door to the family’s apartment, waiting for news, not wanting to believe that his nephew was dead. “I don’t know how he is,” he said.
Victor’s parents, Vicky and Javier, rushed to the hospital where doctors struggled in vain to save their son’s life.
A neighbor, Karina Zavala, said the boy’s father has been ill and his mother is four months’ pregnant.
“It’s terrible. His mother has so many problems.”
She described Victor as “a polite boy and a good student” and said he and Juan were “best friends” who went to school together.
“They were so young,” she said.
Outside the Flores’ apartment, shocked family friend Fernando Rojano, 28, sobbed quietly as he spoke about their loss.
“He is such a happy kid,” he said.
Neighbors said both families are poor and would need help 🧔to bury their sons.
“Their parents don’t have the money,” said one.