Bochur Hit By Car While crossing Route 9 on an E-Scooter Speaks out after Miraculous Recovery
Eliezer Chaim Pollack, a Lakewood bochur, spoke to Ephraim Feder about the harrowing accident that left him with a shattered arm — and, by his account, remarkably little else.
The accident happened Sunday around 3:30 p.m., when Pollack was crossing an intersection on Route 9 on an electric scooter. A car struck him without warning, sending him flying through the air. Video of the crash, which was posted on CBN and circulated widely, shows him flipping several times before he landing on the roadway.
“I remember flying, and the whole time I was worried about my head,” Pollack said. “Baruch Hashem, I didn’t land on it — nothing happened to it.”( #NoHelmet🙈)
Pollack said he couldn’t breathe for the first two minutes and feared he wouldn’t survive, but remained conscious throughout. A Hatzolah member happened to be nearby and reached him within moments. Amid the chaos, Pollack asked paramedics to retrieve his tefillin from his bag, which had been thrown from him in the crash.
He was taken to Jersey Shore University Medical Center, where doctors found his arm bone completely shattered, requiring a two-and-a-half-hour surgery to insert plates and screws. He was released Tuesday morning B”H.
Despite the ordeal, Pollack said he experienced little pain and credited his recovery to Hashem’s protection. “It’s not my zechus,” he said. “Hashem wanted me to live, so I live.”
Pollack closed with a message for Klal Yisrael ahead of the Yomim Noraim: that everything Hashem does has a reason.
CBN – This accident is another painful reminder of how dangerous electric scooters can be. There have been way too many serious accidents involving these scooters in recent months, and a growing number of frum stores have stopped selling them altogether as a result. Yeshivas have stopped allowing bochurim to use them as a form of transport and responsible parents have thrown them in the garbage. They are super convenient but It’s just not worth it….
