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Hit-And-Run Driver Captured On Surveillance Video In Queens

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- The search is on for a driver who nearly ran down a Queens woman and her two children. Luckily, he was caught in the act. The whole thing was recorded on a surveillance camera.

It was a close call for the mother and children.

"I ran over here onto the sidewalk with my baby and I jumped on the sidewalk," Natiesha Francois told CBS 2's Lou Young on Tuesday night.

An out-of-control motorist plowed into parked cars along 153rd Street in Jamaica, narrowly missing Francois and her infant daughter, Iyanna.

Francois said the driver of the 1997 Acura looked her right in the eye before speeding away.

"He didn't say anything. He just looked at me and rolled back the car and took right off," Francois said.

Witnesses said the car looked like it was souped-up for street racing, but the driver was no ace.  He blew the stop sign on the corner and couldn't make the turn. If he hadn't been making so much noise with his engine, Francois said she might not have noticed him in time.

Her older child said the driver seemed oblivious.

"I saw his face, everything. I saw him go by. I saw his license plate," Deshawn Wishropp said.

That's right. Both the son and mother got the car's plate number and gave it to police. The family is now waiting for results.

"My sister could've died. I could've lost my niece, too," Oskar Harrison said.

"They should really try to find this person because it's unsafe," Francois' mother, Irene Harrison, said. "If it can happen to us it could happen to anybody."

And next time the victims might not be so lucky.

The case is being handled out of the 113th Precinct, but so far there have been no arrests.

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