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Early Addition
An out of control Honda Civic hit four people after jumping a curb at Broadway between East 11th and 12th Streets early yesterday evening. The car also hit a diner's window and stopped only when it crashed into a light post a block away. From the Washington Square News:
The driver of the black, four-door Honda Civic, described by eyewitnesses as a middle-aged female, reportedly hit one victim at 12th Street and Broadway and continued driving down the block, striking three others along the way. The driver told police she swerved to avoid a vehicle in front of her and climbed onto the curb before sideswiping and shattering the front window of Bon Vivant Diner, located at 820 Broadway.One man hit by the car was "thrown onto the windshield" and then into diner's door.
One witness told NYU News, “When the driver finally stopped, she asked me, 'What do I do?' I said, 'You just hit people, you should be calling 911!'" Another said upon seeing one victim on the sidewalk, "At first, I thought he was just homeless, but then I realized it was just person after person after person on the ground."
Four people are in nearby hospitals, three in stable condition and one in serious condition. The driver allegedly said that she mistook the gas pedal for the brakes, though some reports say her brakes went out. Witnesses say that it did not seem like she was speeding. And just last Friday, an out of control SUV jumped a curbed and injured four people in Midtown.
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Brakes went out on a Honda? That don't sound too good. Maybe Honda USA should look into what this lady is saying.
Obviously, we need to Make An Example and Ban These DANGEROUS monsters!! I mean, The Civic Is just feeding an oversize Ego and Fueling WAR!
(ahem)
Sorry, just temporarily channeling SUV Haters...
I'm more better now
;)
(To the Grammar Police: Yes, I know "More better" is Bad Grammar...)
I'm willing to bet this person was driving too fast....
Swerved to avoid another vehicle? In NYC? With all sorts of safety features in cars these days? Hello??? Insurance? I bet she thought: "If I hit a building or some people, well, hey that's better than hitting another hunk of steel packed with its own safety devices, like airbags and breaks."
Honda? Sounds like another Asian driving mishap. Sigh...
"... just homeless..."
Nice.
All of the articles claim that eyewitnesses said she wasn't speeding. Have you ever tried to speed with elderly people in your car? It's a nightmare!
I hope everyone pulls through. Sounds like a lot of trauma all around.
I never understood the stereotype of Asian drivers being bad. male asians are good drivers. asian women however are the worst drivers on the planet. It's women drivers period.
i'm willing to bet on cell phone use. i nearly got run over by a car AT A RED LIGHT a couple days ago because the driver was on their cell phone and someone honked at them, so naturally they just assumed it was OK to hit the gas!
you don't need to swerve to miss someone if you're paying attention. if they slam on their brakes, you're more likely to rear-end them, right? note to drivers: don't swerve onto sidewalks! whow often to you see an empty sidewalk in NYC?
Nice. Driver is already setting up a legal defense by blaming the car.
The first natural instinct for people caught in a situatino where they feel their car is out of control is to swerve away from other vehicles. Why? Because you tend to think that hitting another few tons of steel in the form of a car is the worst possible outcome, even though that is probably not the case.
I was driving on the highway once and my cruise control got stuck as my brakes stopped working all of the sudden, so I swerved into the median to avoid a car in front of me. As I plowed through the dirt and grass, praying not to flip over, I remembered to try the emergency hand brake, which did work. Ends up it was an elctronic malfunction of some sort.
Anyway, my point is that I didn't even think about the fact that there could have been a crew cleaning the median or mowing the median grass, but I should have. So, I could imagine this woman is driving, thinks she's slost control and sees a car coming quickly, so she swerves to avoid the car in front of her and mows down some peds. Accidents happen, but this is why congested cities have low speed limits (20-25 mph, which is sadly never enforced here), so people can have a few extra seconds to react in a bad situation. For example, she could have pulled the emergency brake - that's what it's there for.
WTF? Every single day, someone seems to be getting their car up onto a sidewalk in NYC, maiming pedestrians. I personally know two people this happened to last month (same incident). It's supposedly never the driver's fault, and they end up walking no matter what kind of idiot maneuver (speeding, talking on a cell phone) they were pulling at the time. I think it's time laws were hardened and anyone who hurts a pedestrian faces a serious investigation and serious penalties.
The Bon Vivant eatery noted in the story makes a great cheesburger and fries. Not as good as Cozy Soup & Burger down the street but when I worked in the neighborhood (at the Strand) it was a nice place for some quick chow. Sorry--I was hungry when I read the story.
Only in NY
Damned cyclists.
everytime I think of Bon vivant, I think of the escorts on public access.
however, the driver of this car definately wasn't an escort, she's some fat frumpy looking white woman.
probably a brand new licensed driver, I mention this because her passengers were also immigrant looking, including a bald guy. maybe they are Russians or Ukraines.
Sure are a lot of reports about cars jumping the curb lately... why is that?
Parents: Get your cars brakes checked every 6 months. Stay off your cell phones and put down the Starbucks coffee. Keep your damn eyes on the road, and stop breaking up the fights between your kids in the back seat. Deal with the kids when you get home.
Women: stop putting on makeup while driving.
Men: stop ogling the women walking down the street (need I remind you that you're married?)
Teens: Driving is a privilege not a right. Obey the rules, no speeding and lower the damn music.
Senior citizens: Get your vision tested. Ask to take the road test again. Chances are your driving skills aren't what they use to be.
People with health issues: If you've been blacking out, having seizures or you're just plain stupid and can't tell the brake pedal from the accelerator pedal DON'T GET BEHIND THE WHEEL.
See how easy life can be?
Its *extraordinarily* rare to have complete brake failure on a passenger car. Anytime you hear this is usually BS. Brake lines are tough...and the emergency brake
and transmission will still be able to bring the car to a stop.
Questions&Answers -
I would add one more.
People: You live in New York and don't need to drive (at least not in Manhattan). Take the subway.
As a side note, if you do have to drive in Manhattan, do so slowly (no need to fly down Park Ave at 65 mph), and get your car checked regularly.
i was the first person hit, in the crosswalk across broadway on the north side of 12th street. (i'm doing okay now: i have a fractured elbow and a fractured ankle, and am generally pretty sore and scarred and beaten up, but i'm ok.)
nobody seems to have mentioned the fact that the car ran a red light. i could see it coming before it hit me, and it definitely seemed to be speeding - at first i assumed it would stop at the light, and then i realized it was going way too fast to stop, that it was going to hit me, and that i wasn't going to be able to get out of the way.
i'm confused about exactly where the vehicle(s) were that she swerved to try to avoid.
Ross, I'm Ester's friend who saw the article on here before I heard it was you. So glad to hear you're okay! I wish you rapid healing!
Ross - I hope you sue the pants off of this girl such that she has to spend the rest of her life eating dinty moore on a street corner.
Also, have your lawyer seek access to her cell phone records. If you can prove she was on the phone, you may be able to score more quickly.