A man was badly injured Tuesday morning, but appeared alert and likely to survive a violent collision in an Upper East Side intersection that unfolded when he opened the passenger door to his van and stepped out, then was struck by a passing box truck — crushing his leg between the vehicles, officials said at the scene.
Blood was seen covering the victim’s right hand, while witnesses told Upper East Site the man was seen clutching his leg, writhing from the pain and wailing in agony.
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“He should not have gotten out on that side,” said a stunned Upper East Side resident who heard the man’s screams from her apartment inside the high rise building located at the southeast corner of Second Avenue and East 66th Street, where the crash occurred around 10:35 am.
FDNY firefighters and paramedics put a neck brace on the man and stabilized him on a backboard, then carefully hoisted him onto a gurney and moved him into a waiting ambulance, which rushed him to Weill Cornell Medical Center with what were reported to be multiple traumatic injuries.
The driver of the box truck, who stayed on the scene, told Upper East Site he saw the victim’s door opening and honked to alert the man, but could not stop his truck in time.
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“I blew the horn twice,” the truck driver told us, still visibly shaken up himself.
The door to the victim’s work van was twisted forward, like aluminum foil, bent in the wrong direction from the sheer force of the truck, which had been traveling southbound. Firefighters struggled to get the van’s door closed again.
The NYPD did not immediately have any further information, while attempts by Upper East Site to reach the company listed on the side of the victim’s van were unsuccessful.
