A violent wreck on the Upper East Side turned a busy stretch of Second Avenue into a frightening scene when witnesses say a speeding black Cadillac struck cars in traffic, then flew over a median into the air and crashed partially on top of a parked taxi SUV, leaving it totaled. Two people were rushed to the hospital, FDNY officials say.
“I was thinking ‘this is a madman’ at first. I thought he was drunk or on drugs,” said Mark, an older man whose car carrying three passengers was hit by the Cadillac, still visibly shaken up by ordeal.
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“[The driver] was flying down Second Avenue at about 70 or 80 miles an hour.”
The powerful collision unfolded around 10:30 pm Saturday night, in front of bustling shops and bars on Second Avenue, with the Cadillac going so fast that a small tree in the median at the corner of East 82nd Street was ripped from the ground— severed from its roots and thrown in the bike lane.
“He went through a tree. A cab. The cab hit another car, which hit another car,” Mark explained, “My car was involved. A Lexus was the first one hit.”
“I think three of the cars here are completely totaled. And fortunately, in my car, I had four people in the car, but we’re all okay,“ Mark added.
After going airborne and landing on top of the parked taxi, the Cadillac pushed the SUV forward several car lengths from just the sheer force of the crash.
“The driver that was racing had to be pulled from his car and was brought out onto the sidewalk, where they massaged his chest and revived him,” Mark told our news partners at FreedomNews.tv.
FDNY officials say two people taken to Weill Cornell Medical Center on the Upper East Side, but could not provide any further details.
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According to NYC traffic summons data reviewed by Upper East Site, the black Cadillac SUV that turned Second Avenue into a demolition derby last night has been hit with nine school zone speed camera violations since 2017— including five in the past two years— as well as one summons for running a red light, all of them occurring in Queens.
Despite the injuries and the the unnerving scene— one that’s enough to make any pedestrian concerned for their safety— the NYPD’s Collision Investigation Squad was not called in to gather evidence to determine how the multi-car crash unfolded.
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I want to commend the 4 strangers who ran in to get the driver out of the car. It was a seriously dangerous situation: the car was smoking; gasoline was everywhere; people were yelling to get away since it seemed there was a real risk of an explosion. These strangers reached into the car, unbuckled the driver (who I think was unconscious); and carried him out to the sidewalk. Seriously heroic stuff representing the best of New York.