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The driver of the SUV that struck former Nickelodeon child star Kianna Underwood insisted he did “nothing wrong” in the fatal hit-and-run crash – claiming he pulled over and tried to stop the second car that ran her over and dragged her for a block.
Michael Griffiths, 71, recalled to the New York Daily News through tears hitting “something” when he slammed into Underwood, 33, last Friday morning in Brownsville.
“I did nothing wrong,” insisted Griffiths as he confirmed he was behind the wheel of the 2021 black Ford Explorer involved in the crash.
“At the time it was a little bit darkish. I was going to work. … It felt like I hit something, and I pulled over and stopped,” he told the paper.
Surveillance footage obtained by the Post shows Underwood crossing against the light at Watkins Street and Pitkin Avenue when the Ford SUV crosses the double yellow line into the opposite lane to pass a stopped car ahead. It then hits the troubled actress in the crosswalk, sending her flying across the intersection.
She was then run over by a black and gray sedan as she lay on the ground, cops said.
That vehicle dragged her “several hundred feet” before Underwood’s body tumbled out from underneath it, police sources said, with the ex-actress declared dead from severe trauma at the scene.
Griffiths said he pulled over after he hit Underwood and “saw another car hit the person and started dragging the person,” he said.
He said he then got out of the car and, with other bystanders, tried to flag down the second vehicle, which fled the scene. That driver has still not been found, according to police.
Griffiths said he then left to take his medication.
“I felt like I was going to faint when the incident happened,” he told the Daily News.
Griffiths has not been charged with any crimes. However, he confirmed police have impounded his car — which has been ticketed for 41 violations, including 25 for speeding, according to records.
He’s refused to speak with investigators, he said, instead telling them to speak to his attorney.
“No one on Earth is perfect. Only the mighty God is perfect,” he said.
Underwood, who appeared on the final season of the popular sketch comedy show “All That” in 2005, had been struggling with homelessness in recent years, becoming a frequent sight on the Brownsville streets where she died.
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