A two-year-old remains in critical conditions after being struck by an amusement park train in New Jersey over the weekend, police reported.
New Jersey State Police Sgt Philip Curry confirmed in an interview with New Jersey 101.5 that a toddler had been hit on Saturday at around 1pm after stumbling onto the tracks of a small train at the Land of Make Believe, an amusement and water park located Hope about 60 miles north of Trenton.
Sgt Curry confirmed that the child was seriously injured and was airlifted to a nearby hospital shortly after the accident unfolded. An investigation into the accident remains open, local authorities reported.
The Independent has contacted the amusement park for comment regarding the weekend accident but did not hear back immediately.
In an interview with local news outlet New Jersey 12, critical care nurse Lilly Decker explained that not only did she witness the terrible accident unfold, but she even assisted in tending to the toddler after the locomotive had been removed from his small body.
“I don’t want to think about it. It’s an image I’ll never forget,” Ms Decker said in a video interview on Sunday morning, less than 24 hours after the incident had happened.
She told the news outlet that the young boy seemed to have unknowingly stumbled onto the tracks but added that there were signs up around the park that had warned parents and guardians to “please keep children off the tracks”.
The child was hit from the left side, she said, but it appeared as though the driver of the train had fallen into a state of shock as he at first seemed unable to move the heavy object off the child.
“Everyone started yelling at him, ‘back the train up,’” she said, adding that once the child’s mother saw her young son pinned under the heavy machinery, she too froze and passed out.
Ms Decker says that the train operator was then forced to back the locomotive up, as it was too heavy to lift off the boy, which then forced the child to be struck a second time.
“I’ve never seen an accident there, even when I was a little kid. I never seen anything like that happen there,” the nurse added about the amusement park, which has topped magazine contests as one of the best family parks in New Jersey and has been in operation since 1954.
On the park’s website, it boasts numerous thrill-seeking rides, water slides and pools, family activities and more, all of which is located on 30-acres of what used to be a 1950s dairy farm.
