ECHO PARK (CBS) — The pregnant woman who was struck by a car and dragged into a pizzeria Tuesday evening is speaking out.
Raquel Tellez, 19, tells CBS2 and KCAL9 reporter Suraya Fadel that the car was on her within seconds. She didn’t even have time to get scared. “It was all so surreal,” she says.
Tellez — who is eight weeks pregnant — was walking home, and waiting to cross the street at Alvarado and Sunset when all of a sudden a car struck her. “I held on as the car took me inside. I was yelling, ‘No, no, no!’ I didn’t want to let go.”
The owner of Buona Pizza Italian Restaurant told KCAL9 that he was working in the kitchen when he heard a loud crash at about 5 p.m.
When Israel Palacios came out, he found an Acura sedan had driven into the front of his pizzeria and there was a woman screaming from underneath the car.
He saw the woman, now identified as Tellez, bleeding and vomiting.
It was a near death experience. All Tellez could think about? “My baby, my baby.”
Firefighters rescue Raquel Tellez after she was pinned under this car. (credit: CBS)
She feared the worse. But already home, and healing, doctors tell her the baby is OK.
“I broke my pinky toes, I have bruises and scratches. But the baby is 100 percent fine.”
Fadel asks her if the whole experience has been amazing. “Yes, very amazing. I’m blessed to be alive right now. And my baby is OK.”
Investigators still don’t know why the driver lost control of his vehicle.
And Tellez is angry. The driver was using a friend’s car and driving with a suspended license with no proof of insurance.
