Overdosing Brooklyn man’s 7-year-old daughter takes the wheel after he falls unconscious
By Ginger Adams Otis
New York Daily News
July 21, 2017
Daddy's little girl turned into a lifesaver.
The 7-year-old daughter of a drug-addled Brooklyn man climbed into his lap and steered their Lexus to safety after his opioid overdose while behind the wheel, police sources said Friday.
Eric Roman, 37, remained hospitalized Friday — one day after two astonished FDNY Emergency Medical Technicians spotted his small child steering the car on Ocean Ave. toward the busy Belt Parkway during rush hour on Thursday.
“We turned with the car and saw this little girl behind the wheel,” said EMT Arlene Garcia, a mother of three, ages 9, 10, and 11. “I’m a mom, so I was freaking out. I started yelling at her to pull over and stop the car.”
The diminutive driver seemed small for her age, Garcia told the Daily News.
“There’s no way her feet could reach the pedals. We were turning with her, telling her to pull over, waving our arms wildly at her, but she wasn’t pulling over.”
As the child kept a snail’s pace, the first responders came up with a plan.
“We said to ourselves, ‘How do you stop her?’ So we pulled right in front of her with the ambulance and that’s how we stopped it,” Garcia explained.
The slow-moving Lexus smacked the truck’s back bumper and came to a stop.
Garcia and her partner EMT Charles Zimring found a disturbing scene in the luxury vehicle.
“When we asked her what happened, she said ‘My dad was sleeping so I was going to finish driving him home,’ ” Garcia explained.
The quick thinking kid told the medics that she was in the back seat when her doped-up dad passed out.
So she unbuckled herself and took the wheel.
“She wasn’t scared at all. She was so great,” Garcia said. “All she was worried about was getting grounded for driving without permission.”
Police sources said first responders brought Roman back with a life-saving dose of the opioid antidote Naloxone.
He was taken to a Brooklyn hospital for treatment.
A relative who answered the door at the Roman home Friday declined to comment on the bizarre case. “I’ve got nothing to say,” the man said before closing the door.
Roman was due for arraignment in Brooklyn court Friday on charges of reckless endangerment, acting in a manner injurious to a child and driving while impaired by drugs.
Neighbors said the 7-year-old is the older of Roman’s two daughters, and expressed surprise about his alleged drug use.
“He seems very family-oriented. He’s a very nice guy,” said Brian Zheng, 39. He said Roman was complaining of tennis elbow, and his arm was in a sling last month.
“Probably he hurts very much,” Zheng said.
EMTs Garcia and Zimring were heralded for their efforts by their peers.
“Our members situational awareness training works, and this is a perfect example. They placed themselves at risk to prevent others from getting injured,” said EMS Local 2507 president Oren Barzilay.
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