Truck Crashes Into 99-Cent Store In Brooklyn; 2 Injured
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - Surveillance cameras were rolling Thursday as a box truck slammed into a 99-cent store in Flatbush, Brooklyn.
As CBS2's Tony Aiello reported, the truck humped the curb and knocked down a metal pole onto a busy sidewalk before crashing into the building.
It happened on a normally busy shopping stretch on Utica Avenue between Linden Boulevard and Church Avenue in East Flatbush, Brooklyn.
"Got to be a miracle, man," said witness Ferdinand Carter. "Got to be a miracle that nobody was there at all."
In fact, a handful of people were in the danger zone as the box truck driver attempted to park in front of the store. Surveillance showed the truck suddenly jumping the curb and zooming across the sidewalk before smacking into the building.
The video shows a woman with a young child barely escaping injury as the truck topples a parking sign.
"Maybe seconds, again she walk any little two steps further, she would have been picked up," said witness Wendell Pierre. "But it's OK. Everybody's all right."
Pierre was leaning against the parking sign just three minutes before impact.
After the crash, the driver was unconscious inside the cab of the truck. Witnesses said it appeared he had suffered some kind of seizure.
"After the guy hit here, he just collapsed; can't talk," said witness Aksim Ali. "Ambulance took him away."
After the impact ,witnesses ran to check under the truck, worried that pedestrians might have been struck and trapped.
To everyone's relief no one was.
The FDNY said the truck also struck a parked car. The driver of the car and the truck were both taken to NYC Health + Hospitals/Kings County for treatment.