A teen girl is clinging to life after an SUV driver struck her as she skateboarded to her summer classes Thursday morning, according to police and her distraught mom.
Suri Meza, 19, was riding her skateboard in the crosswalk at the intersection of Neptune Avenue and East 12th Street in Brighton Beach when a 43-year-old man driving a 2024 Hyundai Tucson made a right turn and slammed into her, authorities said.
Off-duty FDNY Firefighter Jose Cristales, assigned to Ladder Company 104 in Williamsburg, who was sleeping in his nearby home at the time of the crash, ran outside when his frantic sister told him what happened.
A teen girl is clinging to life after an SUV driver struck her as she skateboarded to her summer classes Thursday morning, according to police and her distraught mom. Gabriella Bass“I quickly grabbed my shorts and my shoes and ran downstairs unprepared for the situation,” Cristales said.
“And then I see the young lady … So automatically my heart is racing. How could this happen? A lot of things [were] going through my head, but everything was slow motion.”
Cristales soon realized Meza was pinned under the wheel of the SUV — “She’s down there bad,” he said.
So he asked a nearby construction crew for help.
“We quickly dragged her out from underneath the pin,” Cristales said.
Suri Meza, 19, was riding her skateboard in the crosswalk at the intersection of Neptune Avenue and Brighton 10th Street in Brighton Beach when a 43-year-old man driving a 2024 Hyundai Tucson made a right turn and careened into her. Obtained by the NY Post“Automatically I’m checking for a pulse, I’m checking for breathing. She’s not breathing. I automatically started CPR right there with my compressions.”
“I got to maybe 50 compressions and then she came back. So she was breathing from there … and then EMS came and FD came and everybody and they packaged her up and sent her off.”
The FDNY’s Engine 246 arrived a short time later, followed by EMTs from Station 43, who rushed her to NYU Langone-Brooklyn Hospital, where she was listed in stable condition.
“Right now her health is in critical condition, they still haven’t been able to stabilize her, they’re finding her to be very unwell,” the teen’s tearful mother, Guerita Flores, told The Post when reached by phone at the hospital, as monitors beeped in the background.
Meza has been going to summer school by choice, according to her mom, who described her as a bright and positive person who was on the right track in life.
Off-duty FDNY Firefighter Jose Cristales, assigned to Ladder Company 104 in Williamsburg, who was sleeping in his nearby home at the time of the crash, ran outside when his frantic sister told him what happened. Gabriella Bass“She dedicated herself to school, she had dreams, she wanted to go to college, that’s why she was there,” Flores said.
Meza is Flores’ oldest child, she said.
“She was so kind and loving to her brothers,” Flores said in between sobs, catching her breath.
Meanwhile, the driver, Saddam Tufail, was arrested and faces charges for failure to yield to a pedestrian and failure to exercise due care, cops said.
He was released on a desk appearance ticket, according to police.
