GRAMERCY PARK, Manhattan (PIX11) — One person died and four others were injured in a car crash in Manhattan Sunday evening, authorities said.
The crashed happened at East 21st Street and Third Avenue in the Gramercy Park neighborhood around 7:30 p.m., according to the NYPD. The car was speeding north on Third Avenue when the driver crashed, police said.
A 23-year-old male pedestrian was killed. A 26-year-old female pedestrian was hospitalized in critical condition. A 21-year-old male pedestrian and an 18-year-old e-bike rider were both hospitalized in stable condition. A 25-year-old female passenger in the car suffered a leg injury.
The car ended up crashing into a LinkNYC kiosk on the sidewalk, where it stopped.
Police arrested the alleged driver, 26-year-old Mahbub Ali of Queens. He was charged with manslaughter, vehicular manslaughter, driving while intoxicated and assault, police said.
George Colli, a witness who heard the crash and rushed to the scene to help, said that the victims are migrants who had just survived a long journey to the United States.
“This corner is right a block away from the Gramercy Training Academy where they have 300 to 400 immigrants sheltered,” Colli said. “That’s not an area that has rooms. It’s not a hotel, so they often hang out on the street corners. This happened right at a LinkNYC Wi-Fi and charging station where many of the immigrants will go to make calls home, video, FaceTiming. From what we understand, the people who were injured were there getting Wi-Fi to be able to call home.”
Colli said there was an older woman, also a migrant, standing on the other side of the kiosk. She miraculously was able to walk away from the crash without a scratch.
