SUV crashes into Staten I. laundromat
A 74-YEAR-OLD man accidentally gunned his SUV in reverse early Sunday as he was backing out of a parking spot at a Staten Island mall — plowing into the center of a laundromat, authorities said.
Six people, including the driver, were injured.
The driver, who was not charged, was outside the mall on Page Ave. near Amboy Road in Tottenville about 8 a.m. when he sent his vehicle flying in the wrong direction, police said.
Bradley Grantham, 26, was inside a nearby business when he hear a loud noise that “almost sounded like an explosion.”
He ran into the laundromat and saw the white Ford SUV had barreled deep into the store.
“The car was all the way in the back. Maybe 30 to 40 feet in. There were three people pinned against the wall. Several other injured people were lying to the side,” he said.
Grantham said he tried to free the trapped customers but couldn’t budge the SUV. Emergency crews arrived within minutes and pulled everyone to safety, witnesses said.
The accident left three people with serious injuries that were not considered life-threatening, and three others with minor injuries, police and fire officials said.
All six were taken to Staten Island University Hospital, authorities said.