Results tagged “van”

The Queens woman who steered a van full of foster children into oncoming traffic Monday night had alcohol in her system and a crack pipe in her... possession, investigators say. The horrific crash claimed the lives of two of the five children in the van, but driver Sheila Bethea, 45, survived. Yesterday prosecutors charged her with manslaughter, assault, and endangering the welfare of a child. One witness tells the Times the crash "sounded like a truck hit a building."

Money may not be able to buy you love, but the promise of love may lure you into shelling out some of that cash on a luxury condo? Realtors! They're so crazy. According to the Real Deal, the folks behind 184 Kent in Williamsburg will soon be "hitting the streets of the Lower East Side in a van, looking to take well-to-do hipsters to the Brooklyn waterfront. They won't actually be driving them there. But the idea is to troll for arty, young Lower East Side-type professionals where they live and hang out." Strange vans are the perfect way to approach people whose money you want, we agree. This one will be adorned with fake advertisements for "WilliamsburgLove" (a mock dating site which even has video), and position itself outside of clubs; with this tactic they said they think they'll have the building fully leased in 8 to 10 months (that's 350 units). [via Curbed]

Last night, a woman was injured when an out-of-control van came "skidding" off the Flushing Meadows-Corona Park exit in Queens. According to the Daily News, "the woman, who had come from Virginia to attend a high school reunion, was talking on a cell phone when the van smashed into the parked Toyota she was standing next to, police sources said." A witness told WABC 7, "The white van was on the expressway changing lane to lane and going very fast. For some reason it then turned towards the park, came on the grass, crashed into a blue car then hit one of the girls. She went flying up into the air and then the van just kept going and spinning around, eventually around the tree." The victim, Paula Jimenez, is reportedly in critical condition. The Post reports the driver, Jian Seng He, 49, was "charged with assault, reckless endangerment and leaving the scene of an accident"—he also may have been fleeing from another accident at the time.

The five French tourists who became unwilling passengers in a high-speed chase on Tuesday when police tried to bust an unlicensed livery van at JFK are getting a great taste of American instant-celebrity. Yesterday two of the tourists attended a big press conference to publicly thank the officers involved in the incident, which began after undercover Port Authority cops spotted a hustler steering them into the unlicensed van—when one officer tried to grab the keys, the driver sped off with the newly-arrived French visitors trapped inside.

Five French tourists got dragged on a crazy, high-speed chase after getting into an unlicensed livery van at JFK yesterday. The unwanted excitement started around 11 a.m. after Port Authority police spotted Ian McFarland, 57, hustling the newly-arrived French visitors from the Air France terminal to an unauthorized van. According to the Post, Officer Michael Bestany recognized McFarland as a "longtime steerer" of travelers to the illegal vans, and when Bestany reached into the vehicle to grab the keys, driver Khaalis Preacher floored it, knocking Bestany to the pavement, injuring his shoulder and knee. Captive tourist Gwen Dulugat, who injured her arm while trying to jump from the moving van, describes the high-speed chase that ensued: "It went very, very fast. We're going zoom, zoom, zoom. The police were fantastic. They were behind us all the time." Preacher led cops to East New York, where he finally crashed through the mechanical gate arm of a US Postal Service facility. The Post got great photos of the police, guns drawn, chasing down the two suspects and arresting them; the other tourists escaped with no injuries and an ultimate New York story.

A minivan covered with parking tickets and debris had been sitting on 34th Avenue under the BQE overpass for long enough that a city marshal was finally dispatched to have the 2000 Chevrolet Ventura towed on Wednesday morning. But a grisly surprise was waiting inside: The badly decomposed corpse of a 59-year-old man, who apparently died from a heart attack, at least according to his daughter. Sources tell the Daily News that the deceased driver, a diabetic handyman named George Morales, was homeless, but his 29-year-old daughter Jennifer insists he lived with her and her two kids in Washington Heights. She says she called police after he went missing last month, but the NYPD claims they have no record of a missing person report. There's probably more to this story, but for now all we know are the disturbing details Morales shares with the News: "The window was cracked open. I don't understand how no one noticed him. They just gave him tickets. In the autopsy, they said they just found skeletal remains, no organs, only his heart." She believes he had a heart attack.

Though his lawyer argues that a "vehicular malfunction" caused the crash that killed a pregnant woman on a midtown sidewalk in March, the van's driver admitted to police that he was drinking before the horrible accident. Keston Brown, 28, first told cops he'd only consumed two Bud Lights before getting behind the wheel, but six hours later he admitted to imbibing more than double that amount at an Upper West Side bar: "We stayed 30 to 40 minutes. I had about three or four bottles of Bud Light and one shot of Hennessey." But Brown maintains that he wasn't drunk, and that the van mysteriously "turned off" before he careened onto the sidewalk and killed Ysemny Ramos, who was two months pregnant. Police sources say that moments before the crash, Brown and his coworker in the passenger seat had been driving alongside Ramos and her friend, "shouting come-ons at the two women from his window before losing control of the delivery van." Yesterday Brown pleaded not guilty to vehicular homicide, manslaughter and assault charges, but a Supreme Court judge refused to lower his bail.

Just before noon, a rally is being held outside the Manhattan DA's office, demanding for an investigation into the deaths of four-year-old Hayley Ng and three-year-old Diego Martinez. The two pre-schoolers were killed when an unoccupied van, left idling on East Broadway in Chinatown, jumped a curb and crash into them as their class was coming back from a field trip. The incident was deemed an accident, but the children's families are upset that the driver wasn't even issued a ticket and still has his license. Hayley's aunt told Streetsblog "We're hoping for the DA to set a precedent and prosecute this person or convene a grand jury." (WCBS 2 interviewed Hayley's mother who said, "No, I'm not all right! I'll never be all right! She's gone!") The rally is at One Hogan Place.

Reader Phil sent us this photograph of a pedestrian who was struck by a vehicle (believed to be the van) this morning around 10 a.m. at Canal and Centre Street. And there was a traffic agent on the scene when it happened! Phil tells us the pedestrian seemed okay (though he/she was rubbing his/her head).

After the Thursday incident where an unoccupied van—left in reverse—barreled into a group of pre-schoolers on a Chinatown sidewalk, killing two children and injuring many others, lawmakers demanded that the city better enforce traffic in the neighborhood's busy streets. The NYPD deemed it an "accident," because the driver thought he put the vehicle in park when he jumped out to make a delivery, but State Senator Daniel Squadron and Manhattan Borough President outlined a nine-point plan to prevent further tragedy and demanded the city take action immediately.

The horrible incident where a van—left empty and running by a driver making a delivery—rolled onto a curb in Chinatown and killed a four-year-old girl and three-year-old boy, plus injured 11 other toddlers and two adults, was deemed an accident by police yesterday. The NYPD did question the van's driver, but spokesman Paul Browne said, "It turns out this was an accident," and, therefore, the driver, who was questioned and whose blood alcohol was negative, will not be charged.

    

A reader sent us some cameraphone photos and wrote:

I was in my apartment when I heard something that sounded like a 13-car pile up. After going outside I saw a crazy scene.

Continue reading "Van Wreaks Havoc in Soho"

Annette Mateo appears to have been one toke over the line last night when she allegedly carjacked an NYPD van and took it for a joyride that almost immediately became devoid of joy. According to the Post, Mateo had gone to file an unspecified complaint at a police station in Harlem and became frustrated with the lackadaisical response from officers there. Storming out of the building at 9:40 p.m., she came upon two rookie cops switching seats in their police van. She then did what any sensible, tweaked out citizen would have done: she sent a message to the Man by stealing his ride (allegedly).

The Daily News reports that the Stuyvesant High School junior who was paralyzed from a van accident in January is suing Ford (the van's manufacturer) and NYC for $300 million.

A reader has just sent word that a "van just exploded into a fireball, a door flew off and hit a cop car. No one was inside." The tipster, who emailed this photo, tells us this is happened on 38th Street and Lexington Avenue. When pressed for more details, he replied, "I got nothing to offer man. Here's to Fridays! Have a good one." More on this as it comes in, but last year, cabs suddenly burst into flame in Midtown.

An email from the office of New York City’s Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum asked, “What sort of stuff do you guys generally look for from elected officials?” You never know until you see it, but this is definitely it: the Public Advocate Community Van, which was donated to the office by Keyspan and pimped out by a local artist.

Police suspect that a strange van filled with mysterious explosives found in Sunset Park may be linked to a landlord with a history of bomb-making activities.

Yesterday at 7 p.m., a van jumped the curb at East 125th Street and Lexington Avenue. The van, traveling south on Lexington, crashed into a 4, 5, 6 subway entrance and hit a number of people--including a child, who was pinned under the vehicle.

Last night a gunman on the run in the Bronx got stuck in Yankees' post-game gridlock after stealing a Con Ed van. Then he took his own life before police could apprehend him.

A nine-year-old girl remains in critical condition following surgery yesterday at Long Island Jewish Hospital after an unregistered van carrying school children was struck by a city bus. The accident occurred Friday morning allegedly after the passenger van cut off a Q46 bus in Fresh Meadows, Queens. The bus clipped the van, sending it into a spin, shattering its windows, and ejecting a bench seat into the street.