WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — A 6-year-old boy drove his battery-powered toy car onto a suburban parkway before motorists rescued him, police said Monday.
Westchester County police spokesman Kieran O’Leary said three drivers formed a slow-moving shield around the boy on the Bronx River Parkway, then one pulled over and ran to grab the boy and his little vehicle and move them onto the shoulder.
‘‘A couple of cars were behind him, maybe another alongside him a little bit, somewhat protecting him from the possibility of being struck by a car that wouldn’t have seen him in time,’’ O’Leary said.
O’Leary said the boy had been out with relatives in a Mount Vernon park about 10 blocks from the parkway. A cousin who was watching him got distracted and the boy took off in his blue-and-gray toy ATV, O’Leary said.
‘‘It kind of just happened in the blink of an eye,’’ he said.
The family spent 20 to 30 minutes looking for him, then went to police at about 7:40 p.m., ‘‘just as we started getting 911 calls that there’s a child on the Bronx River Parkway operating a toy vehicle,’’ O’Leary said.
Cars routinely go 50 miles per hour in that area.
The boy was checked out at a hospital, found to be OK, and then reunited with his family.