Police say a drunk driver plowed through nine pedestrians, killing three, on the Lower East Side during Fourth of July celebrations this past Thursday.
Among the victims is a mother and her two young kids, according to sources, who added that two women and one man succumbed to their injuries.
“I can’t get the screaming out of my head,” a witness told a news source.
Officers told reporters there were several families in Corlears Hook Park when the truck came around a curve at Water Street and Jackson Street north of South Street and hit them.
A man who lives nearby told authorities he was with his wife and sister-in-law in the park when said victims were gathered around a grill near bleachers at a baseball field.
“That’s where the truck crashed into. If you go straight, you drive exactly into that space and that’s exactly what happened,” said the man.
At the scene, first responders found four people trapped beneath the pick-up that weighed an average weight of 5,000 pounds and had to lift it off using airbags, floor jacks, and cribbing.
Police said four of the victims were sent to local hospitals in Bellevue, New York in critical condition. One of the victims is a 41-year-old woman who was one of two people pronounced dead at the scene. The third person, also taken to the hospital with injuries, was killed.
Authorities said some park goers who saw what happened started to hold back the alleged drunk driver from leaving.
“I don’t understand how a person can get into a car intoxicated or people with them and let them drive. Knowing they can alter the lives of the people around them in such an intense and tragic way,” said the witness’ wife, who was hoping to show her out-of-town sister a fun Fourth of July.
The terrifying surveillance video catches the truck speeding down a street with seemingly no indication of slowing down at the intersection.
When asked if nearby construction could have caused the accident, one couple immediately shared, “We’ve lived here for 20 years — there is a stop sign and the barricades for the construction are bright and orange. It’s dark, yes, but you can see these structures. The stop sign was there.”
“The speed you need to be going, to be crashing into people … I’m actually still in shock.”
The driver was arrested. Police have not released the name of that individual, but sources said it is a person from the Bronx.
