Police seek hit-and-run driver who struck 11-year-old boy in North Bergen
NORTH BERGEN, N.J. -- Police in North Bergen are searching for a hit-and-run driver who struck an 11-year-old earlier this week.
Thankfully, the boy is OK, but his family is looking for answers.
The fifth grader was just two blocks away from school when the SUV going downhill on his right didn't stop and struck his side, causing his phone to fly out of his hand. He managed to get up.
"Thank God, like thank God. He just called me, 'Mom, I got hit' and I was so confused," mom Belen Bencosme said.
"We're just concerned and really disgusted by the fact that the driver at not any point did he ever stop," dad Keven Bencosme said.
The worried parents say their son was taken to the hospital Tuesday with a minor eye injury. Police are looking for the driver of that grey 2020 to 2024 Ford Explorer, who ran the stop sign and kept going.
"It has tinted windows and a slightly tinted windshield. It also has New Jersey license plates, however, they're included with that dark plastic cover," North Bergen Police Capt. David Dowd said.
Police are working with state police and say they are close to finding an ID. They believe it was a male driver who's local to the neighborhood.
"We're confident that soon we're gonna identify that license plate ... We do need help from the public. Just have some responsibility and to be careful. Especially when you're near the schools," Dowd said.
The 11-year-old victim told CBS New York in Spanish he can't understand why that driver, who he thought was going to stop at the stop sign, didn't help him. He still feels a little pain but says that going back to school on a field trip Thursday made him feel better. His parents encouraged him to go back to school.
"We were talking. We decide, like, no, you have to go. There's no other option,'" Belen Bencosme said.
Surveillance video shows a woman pushing a stroller walking with the victim after the crash. Police have identified her and will interview her as a witness. The boy thanks her for helping him and says he loves her very much.
Neighbors say there's since been a crossing guard at the intersection, but the boy is taking a different route to school on a street with more pedestrians.