Toddler hurt after 4-year-old gets behind the wheel of Staten Island day care van

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. (WABC) -- A child who jumped behind the wheel of a Staten Island day care center van accidentally ran over a 2-year-old boy.

A toy princess crown, tire tracks, a pacifier and leftover bandages were all that was left at the scene in New Brighton, but a neighbor caught a photo of where the van stopped.

"Luckily it didn't roll all the way down the street, and then there would have been a disaster," said Joe Ricca, a neighbor.

Witnesses say it all seemed to happen in slow motion. The white van was parked next to the sidewalk as an employee was loading children into the van. The 4-year-old jumped in the front as the worker was strapping in another child and it started rolling backwards. It went over a 2-year-old little boy standing behind the van. Then, the van rolled diagonally down Winter Avenue, past five different houses, and then finally crashed through a gate.

"Through the gates and right into the fence and the plywood and somehow or another a little person's princess crown is sitting there, I don't know if it was the person who got hit, is it a girl or a boy?" Ricca said.

This happened around 5:30 Tuesday evening. The daycare center Busy Kidz Child Care has no complaints on file with the city, where they were licensed in 2011.

The 2-year-old little boy has been in ICU at the Richmond University Medical Center. Earlier, he was critical but has since been upgraded to stable.

"It was really a trauma for those children, and I think that we need to be concerned about those children," said Gloria, a neighbor.

So far, there are no charges against the preschool.