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A terrifying scene unfolded just before 1 p.m. Tuesday when a Hyundai Sonata barreled down the sidewalk on Manhattan Avenue, slamming into a 33-year-old woman and leaving her critically injured.
Witness Flex Rodriguez said the victim and friend she was walking with had tried desperately to avoid the oncoming vehicle.
“She got close to the wall, and that’s when she got pinned and hit by the car,” he recalled. “Half of her leg was already amputated.”
According to police, the 75-year-old male driver jumped the curb near Grand Street, striking two parked cars and a gate before crashing into the woman and a fire alarm call box.
Rodriguez said the vehicle appeared to be moving at an alarming speed.
“The car must have been going 60 mph,” he said.
Bystanders rushed toward the chaos, finding the woman trapped between the car and a wall. A nearby medical assistant, Angie Martinez, ran to help, grabbing tourniquets and gloves from her workplace.
“We were trying to stop the bleeding,” Martinez said. “All I could remember was just me telling her, ‘You’re going to be OK, you got this, you’re strong.’”
Emergency crews transported the woman to Bellevue Hospital in critical condition. Police say that her condition had stabilized, though the aftermath at the scene, scattered car debris and blood, served as a grim reminder of the violence of the crash.
“It was just such a sad, traumatic experience,” Martinez said. “Now her whole life is just different.”
Police officials tell News 12 that they are still working to determine what caused the driver to lose control and veer onto the sidewalk and have no arrests at this time.
The 33-year-old victim continues to recover as police piece together the moments leading up to the crash.