Getting hit by falling items is a classic NYC nightmare, and one which turned into a serious reality for two women in Brooklyn earlier this week.
According to the Post, two older women were chatting outside Brooklyn Smile dentistry on Fourth Ave. in Bay Ridge around 5:45 p.m. on Monday when a 21-foot-long sign fell on top of them. The incident was captured on surveillance video:
"The sign collapsed on them and crushed the one lady like a pancake," local resident Ephraim Frankie Rabera Good told the Post. "The other lady got ricocheted and bounced off the wall — her leg got stuck under there." Thankfully, passersby were able to lift the sign and help the women.
"There were these two women near it standing under there and I told them you have to get out from under there and they finally moved," Francine Grillo, who was in the library next door when the sign fell, told Brooklyn Reporter. "They must have been in shock."
The FDNY said both women, whose names weren't released, were taken to NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn with serious injuries. Both are expected to survive.
After the collapse, the Buildings Department issued a full vacate order to the building, and a violation to the building's owner, Dr. Gary Herskovits, for failure to maintain the building. They have ordered him to build a sidewalk shed to protect pedestrians.
