The little girl mowed down by an SUV in Harlem was just days away from celebrating her birthday when she was killed, heartbroken relatives told the Daily News Friday.
“She was gonna be four on the 15th,” little Jaynelyse Valdez’s paternal grandmother Kenya told The News at their home in New Rochelle. “She was so happy, so smart, so caring.”
Jaynelyse, her 37-year-old mother, and her two brothers, one 2, the other 4 months, were visiting an aunt in Harlem at about 7:30 p.m. Thursday when a turning Nissan Pathfinder barreled into them at the corner of W. 135th St. at Lenox Ave., cops said.
The crash happened steps away from Harlem Hospital, officials said.
“The guy who hit her picked her up and brought her into the hospital,” a witness who asked not to be named told The News. “He was with his family, but he was not going to leave her.”
Despite the quick treatment she received, Jaynelyse couldn’t be saved.
“It was terrible,” said the witness. “That poor baby and her mother. She was hysterical.”
Her brother Jombier was also hit by the Pathfinder, but only suffered a bump to the head, family members said. Her mother and baby brother weren’t struck, family members said.
Jaynelyse was in the crosswalk on W. 135th St. with her mother and siblings when the Pathfinder, which was heading south on Lenox Ave., made a left onto W. 135th St. Both the 40-year-old driver and Jaynelyse’s family had green lights, cops said.
After rushing the child to the hospital, the driver remained at the scene. No arrests were immediately filed.
Jaynelyse’s mother has been inconsolable since her daughter’s death and did not want to talk Friday, the child’s father said.
“There’s no words. There’s no words for it,” the dazed father said somberly before going back into his apartment.
The tot’s paternal grandfather, who only wanted to be identified as Daniel, said their home has been filled with tears since the tragic crash.
“She’s been crying, crying,” Daniel said about Jaynelyse’s mother. “She’s sleeping [right now].”
Kenya, 52, said her granddaughter was mature for her age.
“Jaynelyse was an old lady in the body of a little girl,” she said. “She started taking at 7 months or so.”
Her first word was “Mama” Kenya recalled somberly.
“This is devastating. This is like, I can’t even believe it yet,” she said.
The little girl loved to dance and often played with her younger brother and father, the family’s next door neighbor Denise recalled.
“I hear [them] at night, you can hear the joy and the laughter,” Denise, 70, told The News. “One of their bedrooms is next to my bedroom so they bang on the wall. They have so much fun. I just enjoy listening to them. Daddy’s laughing, the kids are laughing, he’s having a ball with them.”
Jaynelyse was the ninth child in the city to be killed in a traffic crash, better transportation advocates said. She’s the sixth child to be walking in the street when struck by a passing vehicle, they said.
“Last night, a mother experienced the very worst day of her life. While she was crossing the street with her three young children, a driver hit two of them and killed her 3-year-old daughter,” Elizabeth Adams, co-interim executive director at Transportation Alternatives said. “She watched as her daughter died in the hospital across the street. Harlem deserves better from its leaders, and Harlem residents deserve truly safe streets.”
Last month in Queens, a hit-and-run driver rammed into two sisters outside a school, killing one and seriously injuring the other. The driver was ultimately found and charged, cops said.
As of Wednesday, 64 pedestrians have been killed on the city streets, a 30% jump from the 49 killed by the same date last year.
Overall traffic deaths have jumped by 5% so far this year, from 126 to 133, police said.
“This is the deadliest year on our city’s streets in the past decade,” Adams noted. “We’re in a crisis — but New York’s leadership is doing little to protect those walking, biking, and driving on our roads.”
With Kerry Burke and Elizabeth Keogh
