B’KLYN CHAOS
Two critically hurt, driver drunk, say cops
THE MAN WHO caused a massive three-car crash in Brooklyn that left eight people hospitalized — including two critically — was drunk, police said.
David Olivier, 27, is facing drunken driving charges for the Friday night pileup that began with his silver Mercedes speeding down Flatbush Ave. near Farragut Road, cops said.
Olivier slammed his Mercedes into the back of a 2015 BMW as it prepared to turn left onto Farragut Road about 8:40 p.m., police said.
The Mercedes veered out of control, slammed into four men who were about to cross the street and came to rest on the sidewalk, police said.
A video of the crash shows the men waiting at the crosswalk for the light to change when the Mercedes comes hurtling toward them.
“I thought it was gonna flip over,” witness Calvin Thomas, 59, told the Daily News.
Thomas had just stepped out of his son’s first birthday party when the carnage unfolded in front of him.
“That car went up in the air and landed on the sidewalk and broke up and took out a bunch of people,” he explained.
The BMW, meanwhile, spun out of control and hit a Honda that was also waiting to make a right onto Farragut Road from the opposite lane, police said.
Witnesses told cops that Olivier got out of his mangled car when it finally came to a stop. He stumbled around in shock for a moment before laying down on the ground beside his Mercedes. Medics rushed the four pedestrians to Kings County Hospital.
Two of the critically injured, a 17-year-old and a 21-year-old, suffered head wounds, cops said. The other two pedestrians were treated for minor injuries.
Olivier and the other two motorists — both women, one 39 and the other 22 — and a 24-year-old man riding with the alleged drunken driver, were taken to Maimonides Medical Center and Kings County Hospital, cops said.
Police sources said Olivier appeared intoxicated, but he refused to take a Breathalyzer test at the scene.
Investigators needed to get a court order blood test to determine how much alcohol he had in his system at the time of the crash.
The results of the blood test were not disclosed.
Olivier suffered a head injury during the crash, but is expected to recover, police said.
He is charged with DWI and refusing to take a Breathalyzer test, cops said. The near-fatal accident occurred on one of the warmest nights of the year with temperatures hovering around 70 degrees.
On Thursday, NYPD Chief of Transportation Thomas Chan warned motorists that cops would be watching out for “dangerous behavior, like speeding, failure to yield to our pedestrians and unsafe turns” this weekend as the mercury begins to climb.
From 2007 through 2016, there were more serious accidents as temperatures rose above 60 degrees than during the colder months, city officials said.
On Saturdays and Sundays in April, for example, there were 28% more people seriously injured or killed in crashes than during January weekends.
As of Thursday, car related deaths were down across the city from 50 this time last year to 44, cops said.