A Staten Island pediatrician is charged with leaving the scene of an accident after mowing down a dad and his 6-year-daughter as they crossed the street — horrifying the victim’s family and supporters who told The Post they feel betrayed that a man of medicine could allegedly behave with such “calculating evil.”
Dr. Sam Leuzzi, 66, drove his black GMC truck into Guy Seth, 51, and his daughter, Zoey, who was sitting on her dad’s shoulders, on Jan. 9 at busy Arthur Kill and Drumgoole roads in Greenridge, police said.
The little girl fractured her skull, requiring surgery, and the father suffered a concussion.
Neither can remember being struck, said family attorney Ravi Batra.
“He [father, Guy] continued to hold her as they were hit. He probably saved her life,” Batra said of the 5:10 pm accident.
“My daughter thought her daddy was dead,” Gosia Seth, 40, said, noting Zoey spotted her father unconscious and bleeding from his head.
The father and daughter were walking the family’s Yorkie, Coco, who was unharmed.
Leuzzi, of Middletown, N.J., who has a thriving practice in the Grant City section of Staten Island, was arrested the day after the crash and charged with leaving the scene of an accident without reporting it, a misdemeanor, violating right-of-way and failure to use due care laws, according to the criminal complaint.
“I just could not believe he would just leave the scene,” said Zoey’s mom, Gosia Seth.
— who stands 5-foot-11 and weighs 184 pounds, was walking with 3-foot-6, 38-pound Zoey on his shoulders and holding her legs, when they were hit by the black truck.
“When you think of a pediatrician you think ‘trust.’ Accidents can happen. But you don’t stay and help if you have that medical knowledge? I still can’t process this. I can’t believe this,” she said.
Leuzzi’s lawyer contends the doctor did stop and help his victims.
According to the complaint, Leuzzi later told investigators: “I was driving. I was turning left and I struck a pedestrian, an adult, and child.
“I did not tell anyone I was the driver, I did not give my information because nobody asked me. I left. I felt terrible what had happened and I was going to go to the police precinct in the morning.”
Leuzzi pleaded not guilty, was released on his own recognizance, and is back at work.
At issue is whether Leuzzi, who has been practicing medicine for 38 years, rendered aid at the scene and if he ever interacted with first responders.
His lawyer, Joseph Corozzo, insisted Leuzzi “remained on the scene tending to both parties and waited for the ambulance to take the father and daughter to the hospital. The NYPD and the District Attorney’s Office have provided evidence that proves this was an accident occurring during a terrible violent storm. The evidence further establishes that Dr. Leuzzi remained at the scene and communicated with officers.”
Leuzzi, “in accordance with his faith and his Hippocratic oath, prays for the recovery of Zoey and Guy Seth,” the attorney said.
Little Zoey, a first-grader at the Hellenic Classical Charter School on Staten Island, faces “a long road” following surgery at Cohen’s Children’s Medical Center in Queens for a fractured skull and her dad faces extensive rehab. He still suffers from double vision, the family said.
The Seths want answers.
Their lawyer said he’s heard one story that Leuzzi stopped and picked up the bleeding girl from the street and placed her on the sidewalk — but never called 911, and another that Leuzzi spoke to police at the scene but “didn’t tell them he was the guy who did it.”
“The calculating evil in him took over in a Jekyll and Hyde way, and then he walked away without telling the police he’s the guy who did it,” Batra said, adding, “He put their lives at risk.”
A family friend created a GoFundMe to ease the mounting medical bills for the family. Gosia Seth is a waitress in Manhattan and Guy Seth is a maintenance worker for the NYPD.
