1 Dead, 6 Injured When Truck Plows Through Bus Stop In The Bronx
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- One person is dead, and six others were injured when a delivery truck plowed through a bus stop and slammed into scaffolding in the Bronx Monday afternoon.
The accident happened at 739 E. 138th St., and Bruckner Boulevard in the Port Morris section of the Bronx, in the 3 p.m. hour, officials told CBS2.
The Coca-Cola delivery truck lost control and went up on the sidewalk, striking and killing Cheniqua Silva, 37, as she waited at the bus stop. She was on the phone with her husband the moment she was struck.
The delivery truck was headed north on Bruckner Boulevard along with a sport-utility vehicle, when the two vehicles collided. At that point, the truck was sent veering onto 138th Street and onto the sidewalk.
"He hit the van and deviated towards the building… he took off this way, and instead of hitting the pole – I guess he tried not to hit the pole, and that's where the lady was waiting for the bus, and he hit the building," said witness Joaquin Corabolo.
Witnesses said it was a toxic traffic mix that caused it all – with homebound commuters and a pack of local motorcyclists angling for a ramp to the elevated Bruckner Expressway.
"The cars are always rushing to get up on the highway, so the car avoided the motorcycle, hit the truck, the truck lost control, and it went and ran up into the thing," said witness Ericsson Padilla.
The silver SUV hit its own pole about a block away on Bruckner Boulevard. Meanwhile, Silva was crushed under the truck – her body covered with a white sheet.
"The lady just was standing there and people ran, and she didn't get out of the way quick enough, and just, boom!" said witness Atira Vaughn. "He hit her and ran over her."
The scaffolding above was left sagging from the impact, and the cab of the truck was left hanging out over an open foundation at the corner lot.
Witnesses said speed might have been a factor.
"This Coca-Cola truck hit another car. The car swerved to the left, and the Coca-Cola car just came just so fast, and just took that lady," said witness Anette Cruz.
Late Monday, the horror of it all sunk in for friends and family of Silva – a wife and mother of five.
Her husband was at the scene Monday night, and talked about the experience of having his wife on the phone one second, and gone the next.
"That was the last thing that I heard from her, you know? I thought somebody snatched her phone away or something, but no, it was that she got hit. And a friend of hers called me," said her husband, Orlando Silva. "I've been married to her 13 years. How it's going to be, it's like, I can't even describe it."
But the hardest job was to tell the victims' children their mother would not be home.
"Five teenage boys -- 19 to 14," said the victim's aunt, Kim Mitchell. "We don't know -- the two youngest doesn't know, so we have to go explain it to them now."
She worked at the nearby Dufour Pastry Kitchen, according to co-owner Carla Krasner.
"She was on the job for us for just a week and a half, and doing great," said WCBS 880's Marla Diamond. "It's so horrible."
The victim had just finished her shift and left for the day when she was struck and killed, Krasner said.
Another man told 1010 WINS' Roger Stern the victim was "very sweet and caring… she would feed anybody."
Both drivers were taken to the scene by ambulance. A total of six people were injured, although it was not clear how many were in the vehicles or whether other pedestrians were involved.
Witnesses said they have complained about the dangers of the intersection.