According to neighbors, [Anthony] Franzese is a Vietnam veteran who was recently evicted from his apartment on the third floor and was supposed to have vacated by this Thursday.
Around 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, 67-year-old Tony Franzese was walking his dog as he does every morning. When an air conditioner fell out of a 6th floor window at 2nd Avenue and 3rd Street, it landed on an awning apparently bounced off and hit Franzese in the head.
He suffered a severe head laceration and was taken to Bellevue Hospital.
Carmen Barreto lived in the building for 38 years and told me her son helped clean blood off the victim. “He was very upset and nervous. He said ‘Ma, the air conditioner fall down onto the head’ and I said ‘My God he must be dead’,” she explained.
“He sits here with the dog. He has a little glass of wine. He’s friends with the owner of the place here, and he’s a very nice man,” said resident Rachel Costa.
I came by there about 5 minutes after the accident happened. It occurred on the Stuyvesant Town service road between bicycle and an Audi A6. The bicycle rider was a male in his early 20's, and the Audi driver appeared to be in his late 20's with a cast on his arm. The Audi's windshield was demolished from the bike rider going over the hood and hitting it, and the bike was damaged too. The biker didn't appear too hurt, as he had some gauze on his right arm, I believe was put on by a ST security guard.
Preston Krupin, 71, was rushed to Bellevue Hospital with neck and back injuries after the out-of-control cab mowed him down as he sat in The Bean on First Avenue and Third Street around 1:20 a.m.
Krupin, who lives near the shop, was in serious but stable condition yesterday morning, but hours later, doctors performed a lengthy operation. He was said to be in recovery last night.
The accident occurred as cabby Syed Nazir, 49, was driving up First Avenue with a passenger, Kristin Kunkel, in the back seat.
He collided with a Jeep Cherokee driven by Robert Batista, 19, who was trying to turn onto the avenue from East Third Street.
Nazir swerved, but hit the Jeep anyway, and then jumped a bike lane and curb.
He hit two men riding bicycles, and finally stopped after smashing through The Bean's front window.
"All I remember is that he was swerving," said Kunkel, 30, who lives in Midtown. "I put my hands in front of my face, and the next thing I knew, I was in the coffee shop.
The young woman lost two front teeth in the crash.
The two bicyclists were in stable condition. Nazir suffered back and neck injuries.
Batista kept going after the accident, but then pulled over and stepped out, looking dazed, one witness said.
Police administered blood-alcohol tests to the drivers, and the results for both were negative.
Jordyn Thiessen, who lives across the street from the site, called it a "devastating scene."
"I was helping hold one of the bicyclists. He was on his side bleeding profusely from his head," she said. "I was saying prayers that everyone would be OK."
Thiessen added that First Avenue has had at least three accidents in the last month since a concrete barrier had been installed to create a separate lane for bicyclists.
"I think a lot of people are really thrown off," by the changes, she said.
One of the incidents she described involved a pedestrian getting struck by a cyclist.
"The bicyclists are not following the rules," she said. "They are going through red lights. They are just speeding along the way."
Police were not able to immediately confirm the incidents she cited.
The taxi was heading north on First Ave. when it collided with the Jeep, which was turning onto the avenue from E. 3rd St., police said. The taxi jumped the curb, hitting and injuring two bicyclists before smashing into the coffee shop.
Today at 11:48 AM Lucky Star hit an older Chinese man outside of my window at the corner of Essex/Canal. He will more than likely die from the injuries. Bystanders thought they were helping and started to drag the man from under the bus. I along with others got them to stop, but damage may have been done. I hope he lives. ... FDNY was on scene within 2 minutes of the accident and acted quickly to free the man and send him off to the hospital. From what I could see from afar, the injuries along with his accelerated age, it does not look promising.
The whole scene was cleaned up by the time I sent you the photo. All that remains is the sand the firemen spread to cover his blood. They did not remove his shoe from the middle of the street. It's a very sad reminder of what may have been this man's last few moments. The whole incident took place and disappeared within 40 minutes. These buses are dangerous and the drivers some times don't pay attention like they should. The man was in the middle of the crosswalk -- there's no way the driver didn't see him.
A woman riding a bicycle was struck by a school bus and died from her injuries on the Lower East Side Tuesday.
Authorities say the woman was hit by the bus, operated by Atlantic Express, just after 4 p.m. at the intersection of Delancey and Ludlow streets.
There were reportedly two children on board the bus at the time. Officials say neither was injured.
The woman was pronounced dead at the scene.
The intersection is just a few blocks away from the entrance to the Williamsburg Bridge. Since 2008, volunteer group Adopt-a-Bike Lane has been advocating for a protected bike path on this stretch of Delancey. "This is tragic news -- no one should risk his or her life to get to and from the most popular bridge for biking in the country," said Adopt-a-Bike Lane coordinator Marin Tockman. "We can only hope that in the wake of such sad news that our city officials do something to improve this essential corridor."
delancey is a mess, and always extremely dangerous for bikers and pedestrians. i don't ever cross against the light, and sometimes don't even when i have a walk signal.
theres definitely been a policy decision made that moving traffic on and off the bridge gets priority over safety. even tonight traffic police were waving cars through reds in front of me as i was crossing the street with a walk signal.
the only traffic enforcement i routinely see is a block-the-box ticket trap on orchard and delancey, taking advantage of the poorly timed traffic lights at allen. not only is this unfair to drivers (i can see that and i don't drive) but it makes the orchard/delancey intersection extremely dangerous for pedestrians.
A pair of taxicabs collided in the East Village Sunday night, careening into a sidewalk scaffolding and leaving six people injured.
The two cabs crashed and, in the process, brought down the scaffolding, and were left under the mangled mess hours after the accident.
A witness tells CBS 2 that one of the cabs tried to overtake the other before the two collided and careened across Broadway at the corner of E. 8th Street, jumping the curb and coming to rest on the sidewalk under the scaffolding.
