[Fox News]
A car crashed into East Village Farm & Grocery on Second Avenue and East Fourth Street this morning around 7, according to published reports. Readers have said that there is a large emergency response on the scene.
Fox reports that there are several injuries, and that at least two cars were involved in the accident. WABC 7 reports that "five people were being treated inside the vehicle."
We'll pass along more information as it comes in...
Updated 7:56
NBC 4 reports that eight people have been taken to the hospital, "including three in serious condition." It still isn't clear if the injured were passengers in the two cars that collided or pedestrians or grocery employees.
[Photo via @Xeus]
Updated 8:04
[Photo via @JanSichermann]
Updated 8:29
Witnesses say fire hydrant, trees, bikes, store front taken out when car jumps curb. Updates: http://t.co/Sfr8iuiflH pic.twitter.com/LFNtt3MPhu
— MyFoxNY.com (@MyFoxNY) June 19, 2013
Updated 8:33
[Photo via @kiwi1978]
DNAinfo reports that the injured include pedestrians... a reader hears that at least one of the injured worked at the grocery.
Updated 8:57
#BreakingNews horrific accident in #East Village. Car jumps curb. Injures 8 @evgrieve pic.twitter.com/RVUtAurWhx
— Lisa Colagrossi (@LColagrossi7) June 19, 2013
Updated 9:45
The Post reports that the car, a white Nissan Altima, hit four people. The most seriously hurt is a East Village Farm & Grocery worker who had been setting up the flower stand. He is in critical condition at Bellevue. A bicyclist was also struck, and was listed in stable condition.
Updated 11:06
MANHATTAN: U/D - DRIVER OF CAR THAT STRUCK 8 PEDESTRIANS EARLY THIS MORNING AT 2ND AVE & 4TH STREET ARRESTED FOR DWI! @DNAinfo #911BUFF
— 911 Operator (@911BUFF) June 19, 2013
Aside from the reported arrest of the drive... NBC 4 says that only six people were injured, not eight as originally reported. An employee from the market reportedly has life-threatening injuries; the other five are expected to be OK.
Updated 11:50 a.m.
East Village car wreck scene on 2nd Ave/4th St as of 11:45am pic.twitter.com/ydyLTZmSbt
— JwalkinNYC (@JwalkinNYC) June 19, 2013
Metro reports that the driver of the car is Shaun Martin, 32, from Queens. The 37-year-old man cyclist was riding a Citi Bike, Metro noted.
DNAinfo reports that Martin had priors for drunken driving and cocaine possession. Police took him to Bellevue, where they reported found a marijuana stash in his sock.
Updated noon
From the Daily News:
"They were racing each other - that's what happened," Alvraro Alban, 38, told the Daily News. "I saw them race right past me. This stupid thing of who's going to take the next 10 blocks faster."
Witnesses say the driver was going 80 mph and weaving in and out of traffic minutes before the crash.
The Altima was "weaving in and out of traffic," said Alban, who estimated the two cars were flying at about 80 mph. "That's probably how he lost control. They weren't driving straight."
The Daily News also has some horrorfic aerial shots from the accident scene.
Updated 12:25
Updated 3:12
A commenter points us to NY1's updated coverage...
Neighbors in the area tell NY1 they were particularly concerned for the three workers injured at the corner store which they describe as being a neighborhood institution.
"The whole neighborhood is out here wanting to know how people are," said one East Village resident.
"I know the guy too, the flower guy who has been working there for about 20 years, so I hope he's alright," noted a second East Village resident.
One worker was seriously injured. Some positive news. According to Metro: "The 62-year-old victim’s condition has been upgraded and he is no longer considered likely to die."
How awful. I guess the helicopter we've been hearing is Fox News. Too bad that unless the driver was drunk or escaped from the scene, he or she will not be charged with causing all this suffering and damage. Ya know, it's always jut an "accident."
ReplyDeleteIsn't this the same bodega that had a huge fire a couple of years ago?
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 7:58, I was wondering the same thing! I think it is!! Those poor guys can't catch a break!!
ReplyDeleteI had a hunch the choppers overhead for the last hour had to be devastation-related.
I came to EV Grieve first to find out why!
The fire here was on Jan. 4, 2011.
ReplyDeletehttp://evgrieve.com/2011/01/major-early-morning-fire-on-second.html
According to reporters on the scene, the car jumped the curb at 5th street and was going at least 85 mph. it traveled south and hit a tree and knocked it down. Then, still north of 4th street the car hit a fire hydrant and a muni meter, both of which flew in air for at least 100 feet, and smashed the windows of Caliope, the restaurant South of 4th st.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteAnother car jumps the curb!Just a few weeks ago remember the cab that crashed into DBA.Bike and bus lanes are leaving sidewalks open for these accidents.
Wasn't the fire in this bodega started by a car accident as well?
ReplyDeleteEither way I agree, seems like this corner is cursed!
It didn't hit Calliope, it stopped in the cross walk at east 4th. One of the men who works at the corner store was seriously injured. I was walking my dog on the block when it happened, the whole thing is awful.
ReplyDeleteDamn those bike lanes! Don't you know they are causing drivers to go 85mph?
ReplyDeleteThis is awful news... and a pedestrian was struck at 2nd Avenue and E. 9th just yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon.
ReplyDeleteThere needs to be an effort to stop the terrible speeding down 2nd Ave. that goes on twenty-four hours a day!
Well, 85mph on that street will certainly cause a driver to lose control of their vehicle... too bumpy. My guess is a slightly lower speed coupled with DWI after a night at the clubs. Hopefully, the idiot in the car didn't kill anyone.
ReplyDeleteNYPost reports that 3 deli workers and a cyclist were hit, one of the deli workers is in critical condition, fighting to survive.
ReplyDeleteDriver in police custody at Bellevue.
@844 anon
ReplyDeletecongrats those were some serious gymnastics to take this terrible car crash, and somehow turn it into an anti bike statement.
It's a good thing cops spend their time in this city ticketing cyclists running a red at a T-intersection on Chrystie Street instead of going after speeding cars and making their drivers think twice about driving recklessly.
ReplyDeleteI'm down here now, rumors on the street are flying that two cars were racing, maybe due to road rage, or maybe drunk driving nregardless the speed the car was going had to be tremendous as it hit the fire Hydrant and tossed it half a block south into Calliope, shattering the window. They had to shut down the water on part of the block, this will cause thousands in lost business again as all the stores are closed down.
ReplyDeleteWhat a tragedy after the fire that closed his same Bodya and also Cucina de Pesce a few years ago. We need better traffic control to slow cars down, but if some idiot really want to speed there's not much to do about it.
Ps-- the Cittibike rack on 4th St. and 2nd ave was not damaged but is closed down due to the investigation.
That wasn't an anti-bike statement, the comment was about the BUS LANE that leaves the curb line vulnerable. There used to be a protective barrier of cars parked thee, if you recall.
ReplyDeleteThank you EV Grieve for your great reporting on this terrible crash. As soon as I walked by it this morning at 8:15 I called up your website to see what was going on. It didn't even occur to me to check anywhere else and you delivered all the news I needed!
ReplyDeleteBut, we can't get the PD to do meaningful, wide-ranging checkpoints to crack down on drunk and reckless driving.
ReplyDeleteI went to a Precinct community meeting and brought up the apparent lack. They claimed they were doing them. I haven't seen *any*.
Anyone know where there would be public stats on how often and on what dates each precinct deploys checkpoints?
The crash uprooted one of the trees on the west side of the street too
ReplyDeleteI just can't say enough about how much I appreciate this blog. bars open and bars close, but this kind of micro-journalism is invaluable. Thanks evg.
ReplyDeleteThis bodega had an ATM at the north end of the flower stand, which after the accident was smashed on the ground in front of Calliope across the street and at least 100 feet away. Incredible. I was standing in front of that place picking out flowers just after midnight. Feeling a bit freaked out.
ReplyDeleteThese guys stayed open all through Sandy--they were a real lifeline for the neighborhood. So sad about the people who were hurt.
I live in this building (survived the fire as well) and heard it happen as I was getting ready. I would have been on the street in another five minutes. The guy who works at the flower stand seemed REALLY hurt-- I thought he had been killed at first. There was a phone stand that was taken out as well; the fire hydrant was all the way at Calliope and their glass was cracked.
ReplyDeleteThank you EVGrieve. I had been wondering about the helicopter and wasted some minutes poking around google news before I thought of this blog. EVGrieve is definitly the best local journalism in this neighborhood.
ReplyDeleteFrightening stuff as I walk the dog around that corner almost every morning. Maybe hike the tolls again and make parking more difficult (seriously) to keep idiots like this off the road and on the subway / bus.
ReplyDeleteThat poor, poor guy. He just went to work on a sunny Wednesday morning. I pray that he recovers...
ReplyDeleteOh No, that poor guy who sells flowers! I hope he is ok... And I didn't say the car crashed into Caliope, I said the fire hydrant flew across 4th street and crashed into Caliope, I saw it with my own eyes, and the Muni Parking Meter also flew across 4th street and is lying next to Caliope... And it is true, it also knocked over a tree north of 4th... It is awful...
ReplyDeleteWell, we could take care of the speeding problem quickly if it weren't for Marty Golden, ex-cop state senator (R-Bay Ridge), and the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, which have been blocking speed camera legislation because it might cost some cops jobs. Which they're obviously doing so well. I nearly got run over by two yellow cabs doing at least 40 down Ave. B this morning, weaving with abandon around the beer trucks that double park with impunity right as we're trying to drop off our kids at Earth School, EVCS and Children's Workshop...
ReplyDeleteI was born and raised right there and I know the florist, who is a good man. I am praying that he pulls through...
ReplyDeleteNY Daily News is reporting that it was a race between two a-holes. They need to find the other driver.
ReplyDeleteWe have to do something about this insane speeding that got noticibly worse after the DOT switched up the lanes and changed the old traffic pattern so busses "could go faster". These streets are not highways or racetracks - they're streets in our neighborhoods which are full of pedestrians, children, older people, workers simply setting up their flower stands for the day. We have to put a stop to this speeding.
ReplyDeleteI live down the street on 2nd Ave. Was coming back from a run minutes after it happened. The passenger was wandering around asking everyone for a bag so she could pick up all her which got thrown out of the car, all the while there were still people lying on the ground. That Citi bike was mangled.
ReplyDeleteI've being going to that Bodega since 1989. I hope that flower guy will be ok.
959am:
ReplyDeleteWhy are you blaming the existence of a bus lane instead of hte morons speeding down 2nd Ave?
And are you really suggesting the solution is more and more space to park cars because parked cars protect pedestrians from idiots who drive the cars?
Dumb comments never cease to amaze me.
In advance: just awful. I'm at that market a few times a week. And I buy flowers from them all the time.
ReplyDeleteSickening.
Deep breaths, everyone.
Couple things:
If there are any cameras on the stoplights further up the avenue, it will likely be possible to ID the other car make/model and perhaps the driver if the license plate can be pulled from the footage.
And RE: Anonymous at 12:09 PM:
The traffic redesign overall is meant to decrease speeding on the avenue. 2nd Avenue went from 5 lanes --- like a highway --- down to 3. Fewer lanes, less weaving, slower speeds, etc.
These assholes were obviously reckless and it was early enough in the morning that the streets were emptier than they are mid-day or on a Friday night. They were able to speed because there isn't that much traffic on the avenue at 7 AM on a Wednesday. That they were goes back to the fact that they're assholes.
Zoo creatures should not be allowed to drive!
ReplyDeleteGoddamn. That poor florist.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the driver and other occupants, unless they were kidnapped and the doors were locked and they couldn't get out at some point...if you are in a car with a driver doing that shit YOU ARE JUST AS CULPABLE.
Too bad they weren't in critical condition.
so this story goes against two things EVers love. pot and Citibikes.
ReplyDeleteJust how many "priors for dui" is someone allowed to have before they lose their license for good?
ReplyDeleteMaybe this incident will finally take this asshole off the roads for good.
@ Anon 11:49
ReplyDeleteI've been signing petitions and writing letters about speed cameras for years. BUT, in this case, if they were there, all we'd have would be the identities. The florist would still be in critical condition, the bicyclist would still be injured, the store would still be wreckage.
What we need to stop drunken drivers is Frequent and Pervasive traffic blocks for DUI between 10pm and 8 am in this neighborhood that has become Drunken Asshole Central.
I'm all for DWI checkpoints but 7AM on a weekday morning is not exactly prime time for this sort of thing.
ReplyDelete@12:43 PM, you don't seem to understand the fact that cars parked along the curb provide protection for the pedestrians. There's no other way to protect the sidewalk except to install Balusters along the sidewalk, but that creates an obstruction for access. I seem to recall a similar accident in front of The Bean on 1st Ave in the last year or so. In any event, none of this has much to do with drunk assholes driving 80mph down the street. Nobody should be doing that.
ReplyDeleteWhat a horrific incident. I hope all the injured are ok. So sorry this has happened to the bodega guys - they're all so nice in there and it seems like yesterday they came back from that fire.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if the bank across the street has a camera that caught the other car.
If there were speed cameras all over the city, even the dumbest and drunkest of douchebags wouldn't be drag racing up Second Avenue ever, because they'd know that they'd get ticketed (for a whopping $50 under the pathetically watered-down bill currently making its way through the state senate, and then only if they happened to be speeding past one of ten or twenty schools in the city, but still...). I'm generally not too crazy about the surveillance state, but we need speed cameras in a bad way and it's totally insane that there's ACTUALLY A DANGEROUS SPEEDING MOTORIST LOBBY in Albany. That's composed of cops that want to remain employed not catching dangerous speeding motorists. Only in Albany, people, only in Albany
ReplyDeleteBOTH drivers need to be charged. Lets check in on this in a month or two and see what kind of charges the drivers are facing . . . I'd be willing to bet that neither driver sees any jail time and, in the end, a suspended license and fines are all the punishment, if any, handed out to the drivers.
ReplyDeleteNY1 just ran a good piece about this accident:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ny1.com/content/top_stories/184084/driver-charged-with-dwi-in-wild-east-village-wreck
What I particularly liked was that the article showed how much we neighbors care about this place and the workers.
140pm.
ReplyDeleteThe concept is easy to understand, but I reject the idea we need more car parking so as to protect from the moving cars. Just find your solution completely idiotic. - like the NRA advocating guns in the classroom.
party over for Shaun Martin
ReplyDeleteMy condolences to all who were injured by todays tragedy. I saw the accident scene this morning and it was as bad as any I have ever seen. So many mangled bikes and flowers strewn on the ground on a corner that continues to see tragedy, including the bodega fire in 2011 and the window air conditioner that hit Tony Franzese in the head in 2010. The fire hydrant that the car hit landed just a few feet away from where AC hit Tony.
ReplyDeleteIn the good old days when there were cars parked along the Avenues instead of in the middle of them, when cars veered out of control mid-block they generally hit other cars, including the parked ones. The exception was at bus stops where there were no parked cars to protect pedestrians and where many infamous bad accidents occurred.
Today the only thing lining those high-speed highways like 1st and 2nd Avenues are pedestrians, cyclists, stores and buildings which the out of control cars smash into.
Most highways have guard rails, which stop cars from going into ditches and off cliffs. Maybe we need the same sort of thing, a fence or protective railings to replace the barrier that parked cars used to provide. Human guard rails and storefronts are not the solution as today's tragedy has proven once again. It's amazing that drunk drivers don't manage to kill even more people, but with the lack of protection from traffic these days they probably will kill even more.
speed cameras are bullshit, good luck fighting your ticket. Next they'll be sending you tickets for walking against a light using facial recognition software or from tracking the cellphone (e.g., govt tracking device that makes calls and takes pictures) every good drone always carries. Why not just plant a microchip in everyone and have them controlled from a central computer?
ReplyDeleteThis whole discussion is bullshit. The guy was dead drunk, driving 80mph. End of story.
ReplyDeleteInstall speed bumps if you want to slow traffic down.
ReplyDeleteInstall speed bumps in the bike lanes, crosswalks, sidewalks, your colon.... blah, agree with anon5:31
ReplyDelete.
I'm amazed with daytime rushhour traffic at that hour he was somehow able to get up to 80mph
I am so sad and angry. How can this scum and his worthless passenger walked away with minor injuries?!! My heart goes out to the injured flowers guy, hope he'll pull through OK. This will probably get lost in the mainstream media so please keep us posted on the latest. Thank you EVG.
ReplyDelete@ Flipper: it is such an injustice that the drunk and his similarly stupid passenger walk away with just scratches, while innocent, hard-working people have been so badly hurt... I hope the injured workers (who may well not have any insurance coverage) sue the idiot driver for all their medical and rehabilitation costs.
ReplyDelete...speed cameras are bullshit, good luck fighting your ticket...
ReplyDeleteWhew. If you mean, good luck getting out a ticket you deserve for endangering your fellow citizens by driving too fast/crazy, well, hey, bring on the cameras now. Isn't that what we want? More accurate ticketing. Doh.
Has there been any word on the other driver? Does anyone know if the passagers share legal responsibility with the driver? Maybe there will be enough pressure in this case for the drivers to go to jail but I'll be surprised if that happens.
The 9th doesn't give out speeding tickets . . . I wonder what their stats are for successful prosecution of reckless/drunk driving? Zero?
I cannot believe anyone would suggest that bike & bus lanes are the reason for this accident, as if nothing like this ever happened before those things existed. Drunk driving and stupid, reckless behavior caused this, not bus & bike lanes.
ReplyDeleteFor those pissed that the cars were removed so that buses could run faster, how about we create bus lanes protected by bollards. I'm all for it. Keep the cars off the lane and sidewalks too. While we're at it, let's make that two bus lanes, just taking away a moving lane from traffic. That'll slow it down.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, this guy should do time for once again breaking the law, driving drunk, and crashing/injuring people. He should also be banned from driving for life. He obviously shouldn't be,
Does any one really think that a drunk or high driver gives a shit about speed bumps, check points, or cameras at 7 AM on a Monday morning. This is a bullshit discussion. The driver and driver alone is at fault in this crime, despite bike lanes, the cops ,or what ever cause you try to weave into this story.
ReplyDeleteRacing??? Both drivers should have their licenses revoked permanently, and pay for the hospitializations, damages to builidngs, and lost revenues, as well as community service. Charges of reckless endangerment as well.
ReplyDelete- East Villager
I wish we could find out more about the female passenger. I live about Calliope, and the crash woke me up so I ran outside and stayed there for about 40 minutes. It was a horrifying experience - the driver had a horrifying look in his eyes and it was obvious that he was drunk or high. I can't even begin to comprehend why the female passenger got in the car with him or let him drive.
ReplyDeleteLike Dan C said, she was oddly very focused on gathering a bag of belongings that included a brightly colored bra and thong. I later heard from another bystander that she tried to pass the her bag to him.
To the anonymous person who posted at 6:16 on June 20 calling us "pussies" - pretty rich coming from somebody who wouldn't even post their name.
ReplyDeleteSomebody almost DIED. You're just as awful as the drunk driver.