Accident that killed a 16-year-old and injured his little sister leaves a Queens family devastated

With school closed for the summer, 16-year-old Jael Zhinin and her little sister Leslie celebrated the last day of school with a trip to a nearby park in Queens to get a head start on the holidays.

Then disaster struck. Before the girls could even get home, they were hit by a truck at an intersection. The accident killed the teenager and injured her 8-year-old sister.

“My heart is broken,” the girls’ desperate mother, Maria Sumba, 39, said through a translator.

Relatives described the girls as best friends and noted that the surviving sister was having a hard time.

“She’s very tough,” said her cousin Jenifer, 28. “Very outgoing. Very tough. She’s different from her sister, but they’re best friends. She’s just heartbroken. She once said, ‘I wish I had died with my sister, too.’ She said it, and it’s heartbreaking. She’s only 8 years old.”

Leslie injured her left leg and hit her head, but her cousin said she will likely be released soon. Her body will heal, Jenifer said.

The cousin is worried about her psyche.

“She’s just traumatized,” Jenifer said. “In shock. She witnessed everything. She said she called her sister and asked her to wake up, but she didn’t answer.”

Police initially thought the girls had been struck by a hit-and-run driver when they were mowed down by a truck loaded with water in the crosswalk in front of IS 125 Thom J. McCann on 47th Avenue near 46th Street in Sunnyside around 3:25 p.m. Wednesday.

However, it was not immediately clear whether the 28-year-old driver, who was taken into custody about a block from the intersection, knew that someone had been struck by his vehicle.

Police are investigating the possibility that his view of the children was impaired by the bright sun, police sources said.

The girls, who all attended a different school than the one where the accident occurred, were on their way from a nearby park where they were taking a break from the intense summer sun.

“They asked permission,” Jenifer said. “‘Can we go for a minute?’ They wanted to play in the water, in the splashes. I guess they were excited.”

Usually a babysitter takes them home from school, Jenifer said. But that day they were alone.

And normally a school crossing guard guides students and parents across the intersection. But the school ended the school year with an early graduation and the school crossing guards had already finished work at the time of the tragedy.

Jenifer said the girls’ mother was at work when she received a call from police. When she arrived at the scene, her eldest daughter’s body was already covered.

“Her father was crossing the street on his way home and didn’t know his daughter was there,” Jenifer said. “He passed by the crime scene. He went home and realized his children weren’t home. When he came back, he realized it was them.”

Her mother said the family had begun making plans for the summer, with a day trip to Manhattan and a sightseeing tour first on the agenda.

Sumba described her late daughter as an “angel” who was always a helpful presence at home.

“She is so sweet,” Sumba said of Jael. “She does everything in my house. She didn’t like going outside. She stayed in the house. She doesn’t have many friends. She liked doing everything at home, cooking, cleaning. She liked going outside to shop with her little sister. They are so close. She wanted to be an engineer.”

The girls shared a bedroom, the grieving mother said.

“She’s a happy girl,” she said of Leslie. “She likes to dance with her sister.”

Sumba and her husband are from Ecuador, where their eldest son was born. The girls were born in the USA

Jael was a junior at the High School of Applied Communication on Thompson Ave. near 30th Place. Leslie just finished third grade at the Children’s Lab School on 42nd St. near 47th Ave.

Jael had picked up Leslie from school and the girls went to the park before heading home. Police said that as the driver turned left onto 46th Street, he drove into them, hitting Jael.

The family has set up a GoFundMe page to help pay for Jael’s funeral expenses and Leslie’s medical care and recovery.

Police said no charges would be filed against the driver. Sumba said she did not yet know what she thought about it.

“We’re still waiting to find out what’s going on,” she said. “We haven’t spoken to anyone yet. Honestly, I don’t know. I’m at a loss for words.”