Three children alone in a SUV careened down a Syracuse hill Saturday night and into an intersection while a man ran after the vehicle, witnesses said. No one was hurt, police said. The white 2001 Dodge SUV was going east about 9:34 p.m., heading down the East Laurel Street hill, when it went off the south side of the road,...
Three children alone in a SUV careened down a Syracuse hill Saturday night and into an intersection while a man ran after the vehicle, witnesses said.
No one was hurt, police said.
The white 2001 Dodge SUV was going east about 9:34 p.m., heading down the East Laurel Street hill, when it went off the south side of the road, knocking down sign poles and catching a fire hydrant with the left front bumper, witnesses said.
“The fire hydrant threw it around,” said Dione Dickerson of Catherine Street.
The car did a tight left-hand turn in the intersection of Laurel and Catherine streets before stopping facing up the hill it came down.
The man chasing after the SUV caught up after it hit the fire hydrant, Dickerson said. He opened the door, grabbed a child and threw him out of the car before getting in the car himself and stopping it, Dickerson said.
“What scared me is when he got to the door and I realized there was no adult driver,” Dickerson said.
Dickerson guessed the boy in the front seat was about 6 years old. Two other children, about 1 and 4 years old, were in child safety seats, she said.
Police gave the ages 5, 3 and 1 and said they are the children of Amanda Barlow, 23, of Solvay.
Barlow left the children in the vehicle while she went into a house on East Laurel Street, Sgt. Gary Bulinski said.
Barlow was ticketed for having children in an unattended motor vehicle, Bulinski said. Bulinski did not have the identification of the man witnesses saw chase the car.
Police are still investigating the crash The intersection was closed down for about 45 minutes while officers took pictures of the SUV.