RICE TOWNSHIP, PA (WNEP/CNN) - The road was filled with emergency crews and after seven members of the same family were hit by a car.
Rice Township Police said the family was walking down the street around around 1 p.m. Friday when a woman in her 50s swerved into them.
Five children, including an infant and two adults, were critically hurt. Three of the children and the two adults had to be flown to hospitals. The other two were taken by ambulance.
Five family members remain hospitalized, with one adult and two children in critical condition and one adult in serious condition. The remaining injured child is in fair condition. Two of the children were treated and released.
The crash happened right in front of ER doctor Annette Mann.
“I heard this tremendous boom” Mann said. “I ran from my den. I heard screaming, and I knew something bad had happened. I ran outside and I immediately saw the gentleman in the road.”
Mann’s training made her snap into action.
“(I) started triaging everybody and assessing who was the one who needed my help the most, and that was the infant,” she said. “I managed to get her stabilized. When I was able to open her airway up, and she took that breath, nobody was happier than me."
Police said the driver of the car did stop. She was taken to the police department.
Pennsylvania State Police spent hours doing accident reconstruction as Rice Township Police tried to figure out why the driver crashed into the family.
“It was just a family, and they were taking a walk on a beautiful summer day,” said witness Jennifer Filbert.
Patric Colo also saw the incident.
“It was pretty much a mess,” Colo said. “It was the craziest thing I’ve ever seen happen on this street.”
The Luzerne County District Attorney’s Office assisted with the investigation. The DA said the driver is cooperating with police.
Mann doesn’t see herself as a hero. She said she just one of the many first responders who helped.
“I have nothing but high praise for all those people because they did an incredible job,” she said. “They got everybody stabilized and out of here in minutes.”
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