The walk from preschool to the car is supposed to be the calmest part of the day for a young family. For New Jersey mom Patrice Pisani and her two little boys, that short stretch of sidewalk turned into a life-or-death sprint when a suspected drunk driver barreled toward them. Witnesses say she did the only thing a parent can imagine in that split second, throwing her body in front of her sons as the vehicle closed in.
They all survived, which almost feels impossible once someone has seen the surveillance clip that has ricocheted around social media. The video shows just how little space there was between an ordinary pickup routine and unthinkable tragedy, and how a few instinctive steps from one mother likely made the difference.
Seconds of horror outside a New Jersey preschool
Earlier this year outside Bloom Academy in Freehold Township, New Jersey, cameras captured a gray SUV suddenly veering across the lot toward a family leaving the building. Patrice Pisani was walking ahead, flanked by her young boys, when the out-of-control vehicle shot into frame and plowed into them as they stood near the curb. In the clip described as a terrifying moment, the impact sends all three tumbling as the SUV keeps going and slams into the front of the preschool.
Another angle shared online shows how little warning they had. At the same time that the gray SUV surges forward, all three appear to notice it and try to move, but there is nowhere to go before it clips one son in the leg and knocks off his shoe while sweeping Patrice and the other boy onto the hood. That sequence, described in detail in a report on a mother and 2, shows just how quickly a routine dismissal can turn into chaos.
The mom who became a shield in the span of one step
What stands out when people watch the footage is not only the speed of the vehicle but the way Patrice Pisani reacts. As the SUV comes at them, she appears to pivot and push her children, putting her own body between them and the front end of the car. A closer breakdown of the video, highlighted in a clip that calls the scene a Terrifying moment with the family flanked by her young boys, shows her arms stretching toward them just before impact.
She has since been described as a hero mom who saved herself and her two young sons from what could have been a fatal accident by absorbing the worst of the hit. Accounts of the crash say Patrice Pisani went to pick up her children from the New Jersey preschool and, in an instant, was using her own body as a barrier, injuring herself in the crash while her boys escaped with far less serious harm. A detailed profile on New Jersey mom describes how that instinctive move likely changed the outcome for her children.
The alleged drunk driver and the viral video fallout
Police say the SUV that hit the family was driven by another parent who had come to pick up a child and is accused of being drunk behind the wheel. In coverage that breaks down the crash as part of Brief on a, officials describe a woman and two children struck while leaving the building and a driver who was arrested and charged after the collision. Another account from Freehold Township identifies the motorist as 68-year-old Angela Arrigo, seen in Surveillance footage that shows the 68-year-old behind the wheel of the SUV as it rockets forward into the sidewalk and then into the school façade.
The public has not just read about this crash; they have watched it unfold in viral clips. One widely shared Instagram post labeled simply Video shows a drunk driver plowing into a mother and her two children, then notes that they suffered non life threatening injuries and that the driver was arrested. A clip from a local TV segment on a mother and 2 outside a New Jersey preschool walks viewers through the same sequence frame by frame, turning what might have been a brief police blotter item into a national conversation about school pick up safety and impaired driving.
Online reaction has been intense, in part because of how raw the surveillance looks. A Reddit thread titled with the blunt phrase What we know about a drunk driver slamming into the front of a preschool in Freehold Township, New Jersey, lays out the basics: the mother and children were taken to the hospital and later released, while the building itself was left with a gaping hole. A Facebook recap that states Drunk driver slams and identifies the suspect as Ang captures the same shock. Together with the original New Jersey post that first described a mother and her two young sons injured outside the school, these clips and summaries have turned Patrice Pisani into a symbol of parental instinct and turned an ordinary parking lot into a cautionary tale about what happens when someone drives drunk anywhere near children.
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