A six-month-old boy being rushed to the hospital with “flu-like symptoms” is dead after his family member ran a red light and was struck by another motorist on Staten Island early Saturday morning, police sources said.
Officers responded to the scene of a car crash near the intersection of Forest Avenue and Broadway in West Brighton around 2:40 a.m. on Saturday, where they found Damaris Earps of Staten Island’s North Shore unconscious and unresponsive inside a Chevy van, according to the NYPD.
Damaris had been showing “flu-like symptoms” earlier that morning, a police source said.
It is unclear where the child was sitting when the driver — identified as a 36-year-old female relative, not his mother — drove through a red light while traveling east on Forest Avenue, according to the NYPD. A 28-year-old woman driving a Jeep north on Broadway struck the van in the intersection.
Both drivers remained on the scene, from where paramedics transported Damaris to Richmond University Medical Center. The six-month old was pronounced dead at the hospital, authorities said.
Children younger than two years of age are at high risk of serious flu-related complications, according to the CDC.
The city Medical Examiner will determine the cause of death, and the police investigation is ongoing.
