Autistic Boy Hit By Car

A young boy is clinging to life after being hit by a car in the middle of a busy Tulsa intersection.  The boy has not yet been identified, but police say he was autistic and had wandered away from home.  It happened just before 5:00 Friday at the corner of 41^st and Yale.  Fox 23’s Douglas Clark has details.
 
The boy was just five years old, autistic and had wandered away from his house.  Witnesses say he had been running for blocks.  That’s when he ran out into a busy intersection during rush hour and was hit by an SUV.
 
It’s the news no parent wants to hear.  A father’s heartbreak is visible after learning his five year old son, who is autistic, had been hit by a car. 
 
“He was running barefoot,” recounts witness Paul Espinoza.  “Nobody was around him.”
 
“Adults were trying to stop him and get him out of the traffic and it probably confused him more and he darted out in front of a vehicle that was north-bound on Yale,” says Tulsa Police Corporal Kim York. 
 
Witnesses, who foresaw the tragedy and tried to stop it, rushed to the boy’s aid, and noticed a medical bracelet on his wrist. 
 
“I checked for a pulse,” says Espinoza.  “It was real low at first but got stronger later.  His breathing was shallow but started to increase.  He started moving, but we wanted him to hold still.”
 
The father arrived on the scene after his son had been taken to the hospital.
 
It’s still unclear how the boy got away from his parents.  The driver did stop.  No word yet on if any charges that may be filed against the driver.