'Miraculous': Brooklyn TV crew helps save teen and dog trapped under car after crash

The cast and crew of TV series "Gravesend" rescued a teen and dog trapped underneath a car Tuesday night after a car accident in Brooklyn, according to actor and creator of the show William DeMeo.

It started as a typical day at work for DeMeo.

The crew was shooting a scene in a video store recreated based on Brooklyn in the 80s. DeMeo's character had walked in and was speaking to a character who worked in the video store. DeMeo recalls feeling excited because his mom was making a cameo in the scene.

Suddenly, they heard a loud crash.

"We looked out on the avenue and we didn't see anything. So we didn't think anything of it at the moment because we didn't see a crash. We just heard it," DeMeo says.

Based on early investigations by the New York Police Department, an 80-year-old driver had lost control of her vehicle and rear-ended a parked and unoccupied vehicle along with a 14-year-old kid walking his dog on the sidewalk.

When Michele Frantzeskos, a producer for "Gravesend," wandered outside, she had no clue what had happened. When she heard yelling bystanders and saw the crash, she immediately grabbed the old couple out of the car. That's when she heard a voice.

"Then I heard the child screaming, 'Help me, help me!' and went underneath the car and saw the child there," Frantzeskos recalls.

Frantzeskos grabbed DeMeo as he was walking to his trailer and called on other crew members to help.

They quickly rushed over to help and assess the situation.

"There was a kid under a car with his legs dangling, and his mother was in hysterics screaming, 'My son, he's only 14! He's only 14, and he's underneath the car.'" DeMeo recalls.

Members of the film crew and neighborhood banded together to boost the car up, allowing the teen to get out from under the car. The teen's dog, who he was walking before the accident occurred, was alive and escaped from under the car as its leash was released.

"The kid was laying there with blood next to his head, and he was in pretty bad shape. And I was trying to talk to him and calm him and make him feel that he's going to be okay," DeMeo says.

The paramedics came soon after and transported him to the hospital, and DeMeo heard that the teen was recovering despite some bad injuries.

"For this to happen right in the neighborhood in 'Gravesend' – it just goes to show like how the neighborhood and the community came together," DeMeo says. "It was pretty miraculous."

The experience reminded DeMeo of what it was like to grow up in Brooklyn as a kid.

"I grew up in a neighborhood where everyone stuck together," DeMeo says. "You knew everybody on every block."

DeMeo noticed that Brooklyn has changed over time since his adolescence, but the incident uniting the community reminded him of the "old-school Brooklyn" of his youth.

Paramedics also transported the 80-year-old female operator of the vehicle and her 85-year-old male passenger to NYU Langone Hospital - Brooklyn, the NYPD told USA TODAY.

"It was a tragic thing, but in the end, it's miraculous. He's alive and he's OK. And we can't wait to see him, have him come down to the film set," Frantzeskos says.

The dog rescued from under the car is doing OK and didn't sustain major injuries, according to Frantzeskos.

DeMeo also hopes this incident will reflect positively on the film industry, which has experienced negative coverage lately with Alec Baldwin's accidental discharge of a prop gun, resulting in the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.

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Michelle Shen is a reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach her @michelle_shen10 on Twitter.