A 6-year-old girl was seriously injured in a frightening accident in New York City when a large section of bricks suddenly broke loose from a building and fell onto her as she stopped to wave at her father.
The incident happened Thursday, October 22, around 7:35 p.m. in the Maspeth neighborhood of Queens, turning an ordinary family moment into a desperate rush to the hospital.
The little girl was walking with her mother near 59th Street and Maspeth Avenue when she spotted her father working at a nearby construction site.
Excited to see him, she approached an opening in a fence to wave hello. Within seconds, part of the brick exterior of an adjoining building gave way, sending heavy debris crashing onto the sidewalk.
The girl was struck and knocked to the ground, suffering a broken thigh bone and a cut to her head.
Her father, who witnessed the terrifying accident, told the New York Post that everything happened so quickly he barely had time to understand what was going on.
One moment, his daughter was standing on the sidewalk with her mother. The next, she was screaming in pain.
Her mother had been unloading groceries from a vehicle when she heard the scream and realized her daughter had been struck.
The family later described the ordeal as terrifying, especially because the young girl had walked through the same area countless times before.
Emergency responders rushed to the scene and found the child conscious and alert despite her injuries.
She was transported to Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan, where doctors determined that she had fractured her femur, the large bone in the upper leg.
Her father said the break was close to her hip and would require surgery, possibly involving screws to stabilize the bone.
Fortunately, doctors did not believe she had suffered a serious head injury.
The girl’s condition was listed as stable, and her family expressed relief that she had survived what could have been an even more devastating accident.
While recovering in the hospital, the little girl was able to read, watch television and rest between medical examinations.
Her father said she remained in considerable pain from the fracture but was otherwise doing reasonably well.
As the family concentrated on her recovery, city inspectors began investigating how such a large section of the building’s exterior could have fallen without warning.
According to the New York City Department of Buildings, a section of brick veneer measuring approximately four feet by three feet detached from the side of a single-story garage at 59-01 Maspeth Avenue.
The bricks fell directly onto the public sidewalk.
Inspectors arrived shortly after the incident to examine the damaged structure, photograph the debris and determine whether the remaining exterior posed an additional hazard.
Following their inspection, the department issued a violation to the property owner for failing to properly maintain the garage building.
The citation represents a significant development in the investigation, although officials have not yet publicly established exactly why the brickwork came loose.
Local residents expressed concern about the incident, particularly because the sidewalk is frequently used by families and pedestrians.
One witness recalled hearing the girl scream before seeing adults rush to help her.
Another neighbor described being surprised by the accident and said the area had not appeared especially dangerous beforehand.
Falling bricks and other exterior building materials can pose serious hazards in densely populated neighborhoods, where sidewalks often run directly alongside older commercial and residential structures.
New York City requires property owners to maintain their buildings in safe condition, and dangerous exterior walls can result in violations, emergency repairs and additional enforcement action.
In this case, investigators will need to determine what caused the section of masonry to detach and whether there were warning signs before the collapse.
For the girl’s family, however, those questions are secondary to her recovery.
Her father said he was concentrating on helping his daughter through surgery and hoping she would soon be healthy enough to return home.
Doctors had initially planned to operate Friday, October 23, although the family had not publicly confirmed the procedure’s outcome in the latest available reports.
Despite the frightening injuries, her parents remain hopeful that she will make a full recovery.
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