The Daily News tells the tragic story of Chunli Mendoza and her mother Carmen Cuapio, struck in the crosswalk with the right of way as they walked to school. Ms. Cuapio chose Steve Vaccaro to represent her and her daughter.
The Jackson Heights block where an off-duty police officer plowed into a woman and her kindergarten-aged daughter has finally received a crossing guard, but the little girl has yet to return to school.
Chunli Mendoza, 6, would be a first-grader at Public School 228 on Northern Blvd. and 93rd St. if she didn’t have a thick brace on her leg, as well as platinum plates and screws in her femur. The June 24 impact left her with a six fractured ribs, a collapsed lung and a broken pelvis and femur.
“We’ve always seen these accidents, but never imagined that it could happen to us,” said father Bruce Mendoza, 24, in Spanish, as he sat next to his beloved little girl at their home about 10 blocks west of the accident.
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