Police: Six Cars Involved In Pile-Up In Newark Parking Lot
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - Newark police say a driver apparently stepped on the gas as he drove into a parking lot, causing a pileup of six vehicles Friday morning.
The incident took place at the lot at 221 Chestnut Street at approximately 10:30 a.m.
As seen from Chopper 2 it look as if a tank had barreled through the parking lot.
"Nobody really knew what was going on, how he could have crashed into so many cars," Michael Castania told CBS2's Steve Langford.
It was a driver at the wheel of a minivan who appears to have hit the gas instead of the brake, police said. He went plowing through the parking lot smashing car after car.
"We heard like a big crash sound and then when we came outside it was seven vehicles struck," Raquelin Perea recalled.
"He started off in the corner and came around, hit three cars, and then he came and hit these three, and hit the building," Madelyn Ortiz said.
The driver was identified only as an older man. He did not hit or harm a person, but by the time he came to a stop in the bushes outside a medical clinic he appeared to be in a state of shock.
"He wasn't talking. The firefighters and ambulance that were here, they were trying to get him to respond, but he wasn't talking. He was like in shock," Perea said.
Perea's SUV was badly damaged, rattling her nerves just before a doctor's visit.
"Now I have to take a stress test. We'll see how that goes," she said.
Madelyn Ortiz watched as her car was being taken away, but managed to keep it in perspective.
"It's like it happens, I don't know, you can't stress over that," she said.
The driver of the minivan may not soon forget this Friday the 13th.