Family Suing Town Of Islip After Boy Is Burned By Hot Tar On Street

ISLIP, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- A Long Island boy riding his bike to the park landed in the hospital instead.

Nakita Jordan told CBS 2's Jennifer McLogan that her 11-year-old son David fell off his bike and into hot tar on their Islip street that was being repaved.

Jordan said there were no warning signs or cautionary road cones near the hot tar.

The Jordan family of Bay Shore was back together Thursday, after son David was released from the Stony Brook University Hospital Burn Unit. His blistered legs and hand remained in pain from melting, steaming tar.

"They were doing road work in the street -- with no signs, no nothing -- and he burnt himself," Nakita Jordan said. "His arm and his legs and his hands is burnt from the road work in the street off of his bike. He fell off his bike."

Nakita Jordan took cellphone video shortly after she gave David permission to ride to school to play in the park, unaware that the nearby streets were being repaved. Neighbors heard David's screams and alerted his mother.

"He didn't know the tar was hot. There was no signs telling him that the tar that we just put down was hot -- caution signs, no signs at all, no cones, nowhere," she said, "and that's why I'm so upset."

David, who spoke off camera, described what he remembered.

"I just like rode over it, and then it just – my bike got out of control and I hit my knee," David said. "I tried to get up with this hand, and I screamed; I kept on saying 'ow.'"

David's father, David Stewell, said no one came to his son's aid.

"The bad part about it is that no one helped him. No one stood out to call the ambulance. No one cared to give him any help," Stewell said.

David's parents alleged that the paving workers contracted by the Town of Islip continued laying asphalt in the school zone while David whimpered on a curb nearby.

The Town of Islip on Thursday was investigating the accusation, and said a supervisor was on site.

As Nakita Jordan flipped through the photos on her cellphone – showing steamrollers, road workers and hot asphalt, she described her anger and frustration.

"They did not pick up their phones at all to call 911; continued to work," she said. "You see the shiny part (of the asphalt)? That's where it was hot at. That's how hot the gravel was."

Attorney Kenneth Mollins is representing the family in legal action.

"I just moments ago filed a notice of claim against the Town of Islip, alleging their blatant negligence and recklessness, and total disregard for the rights of their own constituents," Mollins said.

Now slapped with a lawsuit, the Town of Islip has maintained that all required notification was sent in writing to all residents within the project area, and that appropriate safety measures were met and monitored.

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