Kerry Burke, Thomas Tracy, Rocco Parascandola and Elizabeth Keogh
New York Daily News
(TNS)
Ten people were injured, including a child, in a crash Thursday involving a lights-flashing NYPD SUV that roared through a Bronx intersection, police said.
The incident unfolded at the intersection of Hoe Ave. and Westchester Ave. in Foxhurst about 3 p.m. as police in a marked police SUV responded to a call for a stolen vehicle, cops said sources said.
As the officers headed northeast on Westchester Ave. at a rapid speed, they entered the intersection at Hoe Ave., where they crossed over the double yellow line and into the oncoming lane of traffic, video viewed by the Daily News shows. NYPD Chief of Patrol Jeffrey Maddrey said the vehicle was using its lights and siren.
As the police SUV veered into the oncoming traffic lane, it was cut off by a gray Acura sedan making a left turn from Westchester Ave. to Hoe Ave., the video shows.
The NYPD vehicle clipped the Acura and then careened into a curb next to an assisted living center.
The SUV hit a lamp post and plowed into four people near a bus stop, including a 5-year-old and a 65-year-old man who are in critical condition, Maddrey said.
Video showed the crash happened too fast to give pedestrians time to get out of the way.
“The cop car was speeding,” said Chuck Robinson, a witness. “It hit a lady with a baby on the corner. She was pinned against the wall under the camera,” said Robinson, 51, referring to a security camera near the bus stop.
“Then it [the police vehicle] hit a lady with a walker and it took down a guy coming out of the building. There was another lady walking on the sidewalk also hit.”
As the lamp post fell, falling debris struck two other people, sources said.
Video of the aftermath showed some victims unconscious and bleeding on the pavement.
“Yo, what are you doing? Who’s driving? Who the f—k is driving?” a man exclaims as he takes in the horrifying scene. “Don’t move! Don’t move her!”
“The lady with the baby was down and they were doing chest compressions,” Robinson said. “The old guy was trying to get up, but he was covered in blood.”
Medics rushed eight injured people — including two police officers — to Lincoln Hospital and Jacobi Medical Center in stable condition, FDNY and NYPD officials said.
Two people refused medical attention at the scene and the officers suffered minor injuries, sources said.
The 5-year-old and 65-year-old man are in critical but stable condition, sources said. The other victims, who include a grandmother and a two-year-old toddler who was in the Acura, are in stable condition.
Police were still investigating the crash later Thursday afternoon.
“It was terrible, just terrible,” said Robinson, an ironworker who lives in the neighborhood. “That could have been me, that could have been you, that could have been anyone on their way home from work.”
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