LAS VEGAS (KVVU/Gray News) – Strangers rushed to help a 14-year-old Las Vegas girl after she was hit by a pickup truck while crossing the street on her way home from school.
Dash camera video captures people running to 14-year-old Chelsea Madrigal’s aid from all different directions after a black pickup truck hit her Thursday afternoon, KVVU reports.
Headed home from school, Chelsea was in the crosswalk near Sahara Avenue and Rainbow Boulevard in Las Vegas when she was hit. She was thrown into the middle of the road dozens of feet away.
April Sago is one of the bystanders who rushed to Chelsea’s aid.
“Seeing a child being ran over in front of you, my soul left my body,” Sago said. “She was rolled over on her tummy, and that poor baby looked at me like, ‘Help me.’ I just ran to her.”
Sago says she applied pressure to Chelsea’s wounds and comforted her.
“I grabbed a hold of her hand and told her to squeeze my hand. She said, ‘Am I going to die?’ And I said, ‘Not today, not if I can help it. Help is coming. Just stay with me,’” Sago said.
Help did come, and Chelsea was taken to the hospital, where she is recovering as of Tuesday afternoon.
Meanwhile, Chelsea’s mother, Elizabeth Mireles, had no idea what had happened to her daughter. She was waiting for the 14-year-old to return home from school, wondering what was taking her so long.
Mireles, who was tracking her daughter’s location on her phone, eventually got her answer when the location updated to the hospital.
“It destroyed me because I never knew what was happening until the hospital told me that she was run over,” Mireles said in Spanish.
Mireles says Chelsea sustained injuries to her spinal cord and broke her jaw and arm. She says her daughter is in pain but trying to stay positive.
“She tells me, ‘Mom, everything is going to be OK. Don’t worry, I didn’t die.’ But I know that it hurts her,” Mireles said in Spanish.
It is not yet clear when Chelsea will leave the hospital, but while she recovers, she’s had plenty of visitors, including Sago, who jumped in to help when the 14-year-old needed it the most.
“Chelsea said that I’m her angel and that she loves me, and I told her that I love her back,” Sago said.
According to the police crash report, the driver of the truck said when he believed it was safe, he made the right turn. When he realized he hit someone, he pulled over and stayed on the scene.
The report states the driver was given a citation for failing to yield the right of way to a pedestrian and that no drug or alcohol impairment was suspected.
Copyright 2025 KVVU via Gray Local Media, Inc. All rights reserved.