MIAMI (WSVN) - A grieving community created a makeshift memorial at an intersection in Miami where one of their own was killed after she was struck by a dump truck while she was pushing her baby in a stroller, leaving loved ones devastated.
7News cameras on Thursday captured the memorial at Northeast 22nd Street and Biscayne Boulevard, where flowers and candles were placed below leftover crime scene tape.
According to City of Miami Police the crash took the life of 33-year-old Jaklin Sabag at around 12:45 p.m. on Wednesday.
Melissa Gardner, a member of the local WhatsApp group “Margaret Pace Park Moms,” said she helped set up the memorial because she was devastated to hear about the tragedy that took the life of one of their members.
“It’s heartbreaking, heartbreaking, so all of us are going to gather here,” said Gardner.
Hours later, 7News captured loved ones and members of the group consoling each other and wiping away tears next to the memorial.
“I’m happy that we are all able to come here today right now to remember her,” said group member Alexandra Paz.
Detectives said Sabag was pushing her 8-month-old son’s stroller when she started to cross busy Biscayne Boulevard between cars.
“The truck was at a standstill due to the traffic that was heading southbound on Biscayne Boulevard,” said Miami Police Officer Michael Vega.
Police said Sabag was not on the pedestrian crosswalk when she stepped in front of the flatbed dumpster truck.
“She was crossing in front of the truck that was at a standstill, and the truck [driver] has no visual of her, and he accelerates as the traffic moves forward and unfortunately runs her over,” said Vega.
The truck driver, detectives said, wasn’t traveling above five miles an hour and didn’t know he had just run over someone. Sabag was pinned underneath the truck, where she died.
“I didn’t know her. We went to the same playground we went to the same park, we are neighbors,” said Laura Espejo, another member of Margaret Pace Park Moms.
“It was really unfortunate. I think a lot of us, we kind of walk this route every day to go to Walgreens or to go to Granier, the local bakery,” said Paz, “so I was think it was really tragic for all of us. We kept saying how heartbreaking it was.”
Authorities reviewed surveillance video of the accident.
Detectives said the truck driver stayed and cooperated with the investigation.
“When the guy saw it, he just put his hands there, and like he did not know how to react,” said Juan Camilo Giron, a witness. “Like, he wasn’t sure about what was going on, for the way that he was just walking and coming in and out like this.”
Multiple people in the area rushed to the scene and were able to hold on to the baby until he was transported to Jackson Memorial Hospital to be checked out.
While the stroller was left mangled, the baby was not hurt.
7News on Wednesday spoke with a family friend who said Sabag was wonderful and was loved., adding that her family from New York has traveled to South Florida and are making arrangements.
“It’s emotional for all of us, because it could have been any one of us,” said Gardner.
Some of Thursday’s vigil may have known Sabag, whereas others didn’t, but those who are part of the local moms group are bonded by the love a mother has for her children.
“I can’t think about the baby. I can’t,” said Espejo. “[Sabag] is already causing all of this. She’s already causing that we make a huge unity of this neighborhood, because we all have families.”
Several family members or friends of the victim came to the memorial but did not want to talk to 7News.
The incident remains under investigation.
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