A Las Vegas teen tearfully asked an innocent bystander, ‘Am I going to die?’ after the 14-year-old was pummeled by a pickup truck while walking home from school.
Chelsea Madrigal, 14, was on her way home from Valley High School on Thursday when she was struck by a black GMC pickup truck while in the crosswalk near Sahara Avenue and Rainbow Boulevard in Las Vegas.
Chilling dash camera footage captured the horrifying moment the teen was thrown dozens of feet into the high-trafficked roadway.
Screams from several bystanders can be heard in the jarring clip.
Just after she was struck, good Samaritans hurried to her aid.
One of the helpful bystanders, April Sago, 48, quickly rushed over to the distressed teen, applying pressure to her wounds and offering comfort.
‘Seeing a child being ran over in front of you, my soul left my body,’ Sago told Fox5Vegas.
‘She was rolled over on her tummy, and that poor baby looked at me like, “help me” and I just ran to her.’
‘I grabbed a hold of her hand and told her to squeeze my hand,’ Sago said.
Chelsea Madrigal (pictured), 14, was on her way home from Valley High School on Thursday when she was struck by a black GMC pickup truck while in the crosswalk near Sahara Avenue and Rainbow Boulevard in Las Vegas
Chilling dash camera footage captured the horrifying moment the teen was thrown dozens of feet into the high-trafficked roadway
Worried for her survival, Madrigal painfully asked Sago if she was going to die.
Sago reassured the young girl: ‘Not today, not if I can help it, help is coming, just stay with me.’
Emergency response arrived minutes later rushing the wounded teen to University Medical Center, a little more than five miles from the crash site.
Madrigal sustained injuries to her spinal cord and broke her jaw and arm in the crash.
Meanwhile, Madrigal’s mother, Elizabeth Mireles, 37, had no idea what had happened to her daughter at the time.
She was waiting for the 14-year-old to return home from school, wondering what was taking her so long.
Mireles, who was tracking her daughter’s location on her phone, eventually got her answer when her daughter’s location updated to the UMC hospital.
‘It destroyed me because I never knew what was happening until the hospital told me that she was run over,’ Mireles told the outlet in Spanish.
The worry-riddled mother now says her daughter, whose release date from the hospital is unknown, is in immeasurable pain.
‘She tells me, “Mom, everything is going to be OK. Don’t worry, I didn’t die.” But I know that it hurts her,’ Mireles said in Spanish.
One of the helpful bystanders, April Sago (right), 48, quickly rushed over to the distressed teen, applying pressure to her wounds and offering comfort. Pictured: Chelsea Madrigal’s mother, Elizabeth Mierles (left), Madrigal (center) and helpful bystander, April Sago (right) at University Medical Center in Las Vegas
With the extent of her injuries unknown, the teen’s mother worries about her daughter’s dreams of joining the US Army. Pictured: Chelsea Madrigal in ROTC uniform
According to the Las Vegas Police crash report, the driver of the truck said when he believed it was safe, he made the right turn.
When he eventually realized he’d hit someone, the driver pulled over and stayed on the scene, according to the report.
The driver was given a citation for failing to yield the right of way to a pedestrian and that no drug or alcohol impairment was suspected, 8NewsNow reports.
Madrigal attends Valley High School in Las Vegas and is enrolled in the school’s ROTC program, an initiative that prepares students to become officers in the military.
Now, with the extent of her injuries unknown, the teen’s mother worries about her daughter’s dreams of joining the US Army.
‘She gets emotional because right now, she says she won’t be able to move her hand. That maybe [the Army] won’t want her anymore, that maybe it will harm her ability to hold the guns,’ Mireles said.
Mireles has since seen the terrifying video and said it’s hard to watch, adding that it seems as though the driver appeared not to stop until a few witnesses chased after his truck.
Mierles said her daughter told her that she signaled to the driver while crossing inside the crosswalk.
Elizabeth Mireles, 37, has since seen the terrifying video and said it’s hard to watch, adding that it seems as though the driver appeared not to stop until a few witnesses chased after his truck
‘She always helps me so much, she’s just a really good daughter,’ Mierles said. ‘It is so hard seeing my daughter like this. She doesn’t deserve this, she doesn’t deserve what’s happening.’ Pictured: Chelsea Madrigal
‘”I did like this, and he saw me and didn’t stop. It was a black truck.” That’s all she told me,’ she said as she held her hand up.
Happy her daughter is alive and recovering, Mierles thanked the several bystanders who rushed to her daughter’s aid.
‘[A woman] held her for me until the ambulance arrived. She sang a song so that she wouldn’t fall asleep,’ Mierles said through tears.
‘Maybe it was her angel because she was encouraging her so that she would still be there, be present.’
‘She always helps me so much, she’s just a really good daughter,’ Mierles added.
‘It is so hard seeing my daughter like this. She doesn’t deserve this, she doesn’t deserve what’s happening.’
