Cab Passenger: "Next Thing I Knew, I Was In The Coffee Shop"

Photograph by Vautrin

The Post follows up with some more details about the horrible crash in the East Village early Sunday morning that involved a taxi cab hitting an SUV and ending up in The Bean coffee shop at First Avenue and Third Street. Five people, including a 71-year-old man sitting on the bench outside, were injured. Here's how the Post explains the incident:

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.

Kunkel, who lost two front teeth, said, "All I remember is that he was swerving. I put my hands in front of my face, and the next thing I knew, I was in the coffee shop."

Apparently 71-year-old Preston Krupin suffered neck and back injuries: He was "serious but stable condition yesterday morning, but hours later, doctors performed a lengthy operation. He was said to be in recovery last night." One witness at the scene, Jordyn Thiessen, who helped one of the injured, told the Post that the new bike lane on First Avenue—which has a concrete barrier—has been causing a few accidents, "The bicyclists are not following the rules. They are going through red lights. They are just speeding along the way."

She also commented on EV Grieve about being at the scene, "There was one man holding that young man's head the entire time. There were men and women at each injured person, helping and offering solace and comfort. They all showed a great deal of compassion till the medical units arrived. Makes me proud of New Yorkers all over again."

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in News on September 6, 2010 5:15 PM

Comments [rss]

usernamee

I read in the post that bike lanes are responsible for 9/11.

Sinchy

One of the drivers had to be running a red light, yet no mention of any tickets or arrests.

Doesn't / shouldn't the NYPD have some kind of vehicular detective squad to actually find out who is causing major accidents?

m@mor

arrrrgh.beginning of another day in ny.are the yankees playing 2day.

m@mor

what u saying EVERYONES in on it.nxt thing i knew i was in the ??????????.one suger please.

ribaldry

SOUNDS LIKE IT WAS AN INSIDE JOB

Wza

awwwww yehhhhhhh!

andimags

best comment yet.

Jesse

WOW... some people are dumb. When you get in a car you buckle up, especially in a NY cab.

jt10000

The Post can always find idiots with quotes they think are hard-hitting or insightful.

Jordyn Thiessen, today that's you!!!

Jordyn

Just for the record... I did not make this an issue about bicyclists.. my comment was taken out of context. I was discussing that the new lanes and islands were confusing pedestrians and cars and that is why we have had 3 accidents here in the last month. I did mention that a number of bicyclists were not following traffic rules and had almost hit people too. The other quote that was wrong is that one woman was hit by a motorcycle and another by a car not by a cyclist. I think going green and biking is great... and I can't help how the article was written.

JacqueMehoff

wasn't two of the injured bicyclists on the bike lane?

I see one bike on the side of the SUV cab in the picture above. aren't safety islands like curbs, cars shouldn't go over them.

JacqueMehoff

don't sixth ave and ninth ave have bike lanes separated by an island? I don't understand the confusion. maybe peds are thinking it's a sidewalk extension, hey it happens.

Rocknrope

Don't back down Jordyn. You said what you said, and it's probably true, no need to apologize for it just because other cyclists don't *ever* disobey the rules, of course.

dgeee

Cyclists have become the new "black" man in the city- we're gonna get blamed for everything.

RumpShaker

This story reminds you to wear a helmet if you ride a bike and use a seatbelt in a cab.

I hope all the injured people recover well.

phil_s_stein

And only eat in cafes equipped with passenger and driver side airbags.

S.D.

This is why I wear the seat belt in the cab...

Never know what will happen!

eitan

best peter Griffin impression: Good for you, good for you....

CR

I'm curious of anyone has an overhead drawer of who was where when this happened and what color the lights were.

Jordyn

apparently the cab driver had the green light

JacqueMehoff

is someone trying to blame the bike lane on this accident? oh, it's the NY post.

sj

Seriously. I mean whatever your take on the bike lines and cyclists not observing traffic laws, what possible relevance does that have to this situation? Why even print such a comment at all? This is a crash resulting from two cars colliding and the only way that bicyclists come into it at all is that a couple of them happened to be in between the cab and the coffee shop at that exact moment in time.

Jordyn

That is true. .I don't know why my comment was taken out of context... it was very sad to see them hurt and apparently they are doing better.

jaycjay

"I don't know why my comment was taken out of context..."

It may just be oversight and sloppiness, but lately there is a pattern on Gothamist of quoting a news source but not linking to the quoted source. In this article, there's a linked passage that logically should point to the Post article, but instead points to the earlier Gothamist piece. Yesterday I had to use Google to find the source of an article, which while quoted was not identified.

But, Jordyn, welcome to Gothamist. Expect to be taken out of context, because this is the spin zone. Controversy (a.k.a. page views) must be created! And not just here, see my comment a couple of days ago about talking to the press in general.

Jordyn

Thank you so much .. actually it was the NYPost that took my comments out of context and went off in a different direction contrary to what we were discussing.. which was the accident.. I think they were trying to make 2 points in 1 .. which didn't work... I appreciate your kind words and look forward to reading your older post .. all the best .. jt :)

Jordyn

My comments were taken out of context as you can see in my reply below. This was not supposed to be about bicyclists and how they ride but about helping them after they had been hit by a car...

Jordyn

My take is that they were trying to tie in the islands contributing to the problem... not so much the cyclists.. as my comment below states.. my statements were taken out of context.. the issue here is that innocent people were hurt and we were only tryng to help them.

dollarmenu

Exactly, way to make this a BIKE LANE issue. Sounds to me like the cab's driving up the avenue at the same time a car's making a left turn onto the avenue. One of those two things should not be happening, period.