A pregnant woman was crushed by this bus in The Bronx yesterday - but a superhuman effort by 30 strangers who lifted the vehicle off her body miraculously saved her baby before she died.
Donnette Sanz , 33, identified as an NYPD traffic agent, never got a chance to hold her 3-pound, 6-ounce son, who came into the world via emergency Caesarean section at nearby St. Barnabas Hospital.
She was pronounced dead shortly after his extraordinary birth. The child was in critical condition, but healthy and expected to live.
The nightmarish accident happened at 2 p.m. in the Fordham section. Sanz, who was on administrative duty because she was seven-months pregnant, was crossing 188th Street at Webster Avenue on her way to lunch when a runaway van smashed into her.
"My brakes went out as I was coming from Valentine [Avenue]," van driver Walter Walker, 72, told The Post before cops picked him up. "The light turned red, and I couldn't stop . . . I tried to miss her.
"I tried to go behind her, but she stopped and moved back, and I hit her," he said, holding his head in his hands.
At the same time, the small yellow school bus - with no kids aboard - slammed into the van, pinning Sanz underneath, authorities said.
Within seconds, more than two dozen strangers - from a nearby park, the busy sidewalk and a construction site - poured into the street to aid Sanz.
"Twenty of us started lifting up the bus - about 10 more came to help," said hardhat Madalina Diaz, 42, of Ardsley. "We didn't really communicate, we all just started lifting. We lifted it up and someone pulled her out.
"It's amazing that all those people came out and helped. It's good to see people still care."
Sanz was rushed into the St. Barnabas emergency room at 2:18 p.m. She survived the emergency delivery, and died at 4:22 p.m., a spokesman said.
Her baby was taken to the neonatal intensive-care unit and placed on a ventilator.
The baby boy was named Sean Michael, said Sanz's sister, Beverly.
"She got the baby's [sonogram] picture on Sunday," the sister said. "She said all she's living for is her baby."
"I feel bad, terrible," said Walker, the driver, who was using his brother's van, which had Mississippi plates, to help a friend move.
He said he, too, helped in lifting the bus.
Walker, of 139th Street in Manhattan, admitted he hasn't had a license since the 1960s. He told The Post he couldn't ever afford to pay off some $2,000 in unpaid tickets, so he never bothered to get another license.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said the van driver had "20 suspensions."
A police source said he also had a gun bust and arrests for driving on a suspended license, grand larceny, menacing and aggravated harassment.
Walker was being held last night on charges that included criminally negligent homicide.
Mayor Bloomberg, who went to St. Barnabas to comfort Sanz's relatives, said, "I hope that as this child grows up, he comes to understand that his mother gave her life in service to our city, and we are forever grateful."
Republished with permission of The New York Post.
