30 men lift bus to save baby in New York

16 Aug, 2008

NEW YORK (AFP) - About 30 men lifted a schoolbus to save a pregnant woman struck by the bus, enabling the baby to be born before the woman died of her injuries, the New York Post said Friday.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg paid tribute to the victim, Donnette Sanz, 33, a traffic cop who was off duty when she was hit Thursday by the bus in the city's Bronx section.

"It is a terrible poignancy that Donnette's son's birthday will now coincide with the day his mother died. She gave her life in service to our city," the mayor said.

"A superhuman effort by 30 strangers who lifted the vehicle off her body miraculously saved her baby before she died," the New York Post said.

"We did not really communicate, we all just started lifting. We lifted it up and someone pulled her out," Madalina Diaz, 42, told the paper.

The woman, six months pregnant, was rushed to the hospital, where the baby was born by caesarian section a few minutes before she died.