At least seven people – including two children – were injured in a two-vehicle accident Friday morning in which a car drove into an outdoor diner in Manhattan, police said.
The chain reaction impact occurred just after 8:30 a.m. when a white van hit a black sedan and the car sped through the dining room at the intersection of East 50th Street and Second Avenue.
The van, heading south on Second Avenue, kept driving and plowed into a fruit stand, sources said.
Witnesses said the van began to storm things between East 51st and 50th Street, before coming to a stop at East 49th Street.
Juan Carlos Quispe, 44, said his brother, who was waiting on East 50th Street and Second Avenue at the time, missed in the nick of time being mowed down.
“My brother said, ‘Hey Carlos, it’s an accident,'” said Quispe, who came from Third Avenue. ‘When I came, I saw two small children on the sidewalk. They were scared.
They were shaking. I have not seen any blood. “
Quispe said he saw an Asian woman lying on her back near 49th and Second Avenues.
“She was trembling, trembling,” he recalled. She had her eyes closed. It seemed like she was in pain. The ambulance came and took her away. People said it would be okay because she moved her hands and legs. “
He added of his brother: “Thank goodness he is fine. He could have been hit. “
Videos on the Citizen app show the dramatic aftermath – piles of debris scattered around the intersection just outside a Starbucks, as well as a traffic light and street sign that have been toppled.
Airbags in the sedan, which had front damage, were deployed.
A driver was taken into custody and may have been under the influence, police said.
The FDNY said seven people – five adults and two children – were taken to Bellevue Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
One suffered a fractured hip, while the children suffered scrapes from the flying debris, sources said.
No one was outside in the dining area at the time of the crash, police said.
