FATAL REVERSE

Driver killed by own van, special-needs kids inside

SHE HAD JUST taken the job a few months ago — driving a van filled with special-needs children — because she loved to help people.

On Wednesday, an accident at her new job cost the 37-year-old Bronx mom her life.

The distraught family of Irene Espinal-Jiminian said she had started her new job as a driver for the Institutes of Applied Human Dynamics seven months ago.

“I saw her at five in the morning before she left to work,” said her husband, Joaquin Jiminez. “She was the best person, caring, and she helped without being asked, a good mother.”

The Van Nest mom of two young boys was driving a Ford van, transporting a group of special-needs kids at about 11 a.m. Wednesday.

She stopped on E. 229th St. by Carpenter Ave. in Wakefield and stepped out of the vehicle, but then walked back to the driver’s side to reposition the van, cops said.

Espinal-Jiminian (photo) put the vehicle into reverse, but then apparently slipped and fell to the ground, cops said.

The van rolled back, crushing her with its front driver-side wheel, police said. It then hit a parked vehicle and stopped. None of the children inside was hurt, cops said. Espinal-Jiminian was taken to nearby Montefiore Medical Center, where she died, cops said. Her family was still trying to make sense of the awful chain of events Thursday. “I am lost for words right now,” her husband said. Espinal-Jiminian’s mom, Eusebia Jiminian, said she was still waiting to find out the specifics of what happened from police.

“We don’t know what exactly happened,” she said. “The police did not break the news to us, the hospital did, and was respectful.”

Police initially thought Espinal-Jiminian may have been struck by a hit-and-run driver, but their investigation determined otherwise.

Authorities could not say whether any of the children in the van witnessed the tragedy.

The Tarrytown-based Institutes of Applied Human Dynamics runs residential programs for special-needs children in Westchester County and the Bronx.

“Irene was proud of her job, 100%” said Cristian Garcia, a close friend of the victim’s family.

Espinal-Jiminian lived in the Bronx all her life, and used to work at an assisted-living facility, Garcia’s daughter said.

“She loved caring for people,” Caren Garcia said.

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