4 People Hurt After SUV Crashes Into Scaffolding In Manhattan

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Four people were hurt Thursday after an SUV crashed into scaffolding on Manhattan's East Side.

The accident happened at around 3 p.m. at 42nd Street and First Avenue, steps away from the United Nations.

A Nissan Pathfinder and a taxi collided on 42nd Street, sending the SUV into scaffolding, police said.

A man on a bicycle was also struck, witnesses said.

"He was just laid out," witness Sorcha Taffe told CBS 2's Dave Carlin. "They were trying to resuscitate him, and we thought he was dead or something. But then his leg started to move. That's when ambulances moved in and the fire trucks came.

"We heard the boom," a witness told 1010 WINS' Al Jones. "And then everybody in the park run out. And then when I'm looking, we saw the guy on the ground."

Three others were described as walking wounded, Carlin reported. The driver of the taxi and a female passenger appeared to have minor injuries.

The driver of the SUV had a leg injury, Carlin said.

When the section of scaffolding started to break apart, it was hanging precariously over people's heads.

"Four people on the ground with the scaffolding very dangerously hanging -- so it was a dangerous situation for the first five minutes," said FDNY Battalion Chief John Corcoran.

Jeremy Lebow, who lives nearby, said he ran over when he heard the accident and saw a man on the ground.

He was "unconscious and bleeding from his head and somewhere else on his lower body as well," Lebow told WCBS 880's Alex Silverman. "I believe the taxi driver was still pinned in the car."

For about an hour, 42nd Street was closed at First Avenue, police said.

Both cars were removed from the scene. A crew was later seen cleaning up and repairing the scaffolding Thursday afternoon.

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