'Like a movie,' Witnesses chase driver who slammed into wheelchair van in East Boston
EAST BOSTON – A man in a wheelchair was hit by a car Tuesday morning as he was being put into a transport van in East Boston. After the crash, witnesses chased down the suspected driver.
Part of Border Street was temporarily blocked off after the crash.
"All of a sudden I hear a big bang out of nowhere," neighbor Nelson Flores said.
Alicia Studley was standing near the Ride Right Transportaiton van as her 63-year-old father had just been moved onto a lift in his wheelchair. That's when she said a silver Chevy Impala slammed into the van.
"I had to jump, flew out of the way, because I almost got hit too," Studley said. "He had just been placed on the lift. On the lift. And the lift gets crushed sideways. So it flips him, throws his chair back, the lady back. flips him in the air. I was just like, I was frozen. I was sick."
Studley said her father was on his way to a doctor's appointment, set to get a prosthetic leg back. Instead, he was taken to the hospital with injuries to his other leg.
Following the crash, Studley went running after the driver.
"I ripped the shirt off his head, couldn't get a hand of him. We're running, other people came out and asked me what happened. I said 'He's running.' So they came to run after him too," Studley said. "When they seen him come back up this way and I was chasing him, the construction workers all came running out, started chasing him this way. The cop turned the corner and grabbed him. It was like a movie."
Boston Police described the injuries to Studley's father as non-life threatening and confirmed that an arrest was made on scene.