What to Know
- Six people were hospitalized after a chain reaction crash ended with a livery cab crashing into a crowd of people in lower Manhattan
- Authorities initially thought the crashes stemmed from a case of road rage but later said only that the cause was under investigation
- The driver of the cab was questioned and released; the six people who were hurt are expected to survive their injuries
Six people were hurt after a livery cab crashed into at least two other vehicles and hopped a curb in lower Manhattan before plowing into a crowd of people, authorities said.
The NYPD initially said the chain-reaction crash near the Federal Reserve Bank of New York at Liberty and Nassau streets in the Financial District Thursday afternoon was possibly spurred by a case of road rage. But after releasing the driver of the black Lincoln Town Car that jumped the sidewalk without charges Thursday night, they told News 4 only that they were still investigating a possible cause, which isn't believed to be intentional.
Video posted to the emergency reporting app Citizen showed a black vehicle almost entirely on the sidewalk with its front end completely smashed. Investigators crowded the area around the car as ambulances pulled up to the scene.
NYPD Deputy Inspector Mark Iocc said a preliminary investigation indicates the Lincoln hit a gray Ford Explorer -- which then hit a cyclist -- at Liberty Street and Broadway, then left the scene and traveled nearly one block east, to Nassau Street, where it rear-ended a Mercedes SUV and careened up onto the sidewalk.
Two pedestrians were struck at Liberty Street and Broadway and another pedestrian was hit when the vehicle came to a stop on the sidewalk, Iocc said. The cyclist and two drivers were also hurt.
The 68-year-old driver of the livery cab was among the injured, and was taken to the hospital with chest pains. One of the other victims suffered a head injury, though all of them are expected to survive.
A witness, Hector Freytes, of Queens, says people scattered as the car sped along Liberty Street. He says a woman near him in a crosswalk dove out of the way and suffered a leg injury. Freytes says he's "in shock."
Emergency crews flooded the two scenes; the space around the Lincoln was completely blocked off, as was the area near Liberty Street and Broadway, where the Explorer was seen in the middle of the intersection, a bicycle under its front right tire. Both the SUV and the Lincoln have New York City Taxi & Limousine Commission license plates, authorities said. News 4 has reached out to the TLC for comment.
The site is less than a mile from the bike path on which a 29-year-old New Jersey man allegedly intentionally drove a rented U-Haul truck for 20 straight blocks on Halloween, killing eight people and injuring many more in a rampage authorities have declared an act of terror. Sayfullo Saipov has pleaded not guilty to multiple counts of murder and providing material support to ISIS.
